li»-)MniM--
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2008 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/collections0405malouoft
PRINTED FOR THE MALONE SOCIETY BY
HORACE HART M.A., AT THE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY
PRESS
COLLECTIONS
PARTS IV & V
\''.
^
THE MALONE SOCIETY
'Temporary Title-page] 1 9 1 1
PR
''' ,
Ms-
The Fourth and Fifth Parts of the Society's
Collections are published together. With them
are issued preliminary matter and an index to the
First Volume.
Oct. 1 9 1 1 . W. W. Greg, Gen. Ed.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Notes on the Society's Publications 285
Bodenham's Belvedere, Quotations from The Virtuous Octavia and
A Knack to Know an Honest Man, by C. Crawford . .296
The Hunting of Cupid, a lost play by George Peele . . . 307
The Cruel Debtor, a fragment of a morality printed by Colwell,
c. 1566 3^5
Notes on Dramatic Bibliographers, by W. W. Greg . . . 324
A Jotting by John Aubrey, by E. K. Chambers .... 341
Two Early Player-Lists, by E. K. Chambers 348
Commissions for the Chapel, by E. K. Chambers .... 357
Plays of the King's Men in 1641, by E. K. Chambers . . . 364
Dramatic Records from the Privy Council Register, 1 603-1 642,
edited by E. K. Chambers and W. W. Greg .... 370
*^* Except where otherwise stated the responsibility for
contributions rests with the General Editor.
vn
NOTES ON
THE SOCIETY'S PUBLICATIONS
During the years 1910 and 191 1 the Society has issued ten
plays to its members. The five for 19 10 are Tmn Tyler and his
Wife, reprinted from the second, but earliest known, edition,
dated 1661, Peele's Arraignment of Paris, 1584, Lodge's
Wounds of Civil War, 1594, A Knack to Know an Honest
Maft, 1596, and the anonymous Birth of Hercules from MS.
Add. 28722 at the British Museum. The plays for 191 1 are
Apiiis and Virginia by R. B., 1575, Peele's Edward /, 1593,
and the anonymous George a Green, 1599, Caesar s Revenge, of
which one issue is dated 1607, and Sir Thomas Moore from
MS. Harl. 7368.
With regard to the first of these, Tom Tyler, an important
piece of evidence has since been discovered by Mr. Arundell
Esdaile. It consists of the following entry made in the Stationers'
Register towards the end of the year July 1562 to July 1563 :
' Recevyd of Thomas Colwell for his lycense of pryntinge
of these ballettes folowynge / one of husbondes and suche
husbondry/as Townes and Countryes Dayly Doth Dyscrye/
and other of the godly and constante wyse Susanna /and other
of cheldryns though tes / and other byrche and grene hollye/and
other of loue/and other a songe of my lorde Couurtenay and an
other of [a] mayde/and other of the lamentation of lady lane/
and an other of tom Tyler iij^' (Arber's Transcript, I. 210).
It is of course quite possible that the Tom- Tyler here entered
really was a ballad, probably on the same subject as the interlude
and possibly even taken from it. There are, however, other
instances of interludes being entered as ballads, for at this period
the fees had not yet been differentiated and there was no motive
pp
286 NOTES ON PUBLICATIONS
for accurate discrimination on the part of the Company's clerk.
Since then the date, 1563, agrees so closely with that required,
* about a hundred Years ' before 1 661, we may reasonably accept
this as the actual entry of the play until either a ballad on the
subject or another entry is discovered. The identification of
the present entry was indeed suggested by Collier, whose note
on the subject {^Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers
Company, i. 74) the General Editor must confess to having
overlooked.
The editor of the Society's reprint of Tom Tyler, Professor
G. C. Moore Smith, has kindly supplied the following note on the
language of the piece : — ' The play contains a number of words
and phrases which are rare or present difficulty, even with the
help given in the case of some of them by the N.E.D. For
example : 'The Pigs in the puddle' (1. 135), *a sight of good
guesse' (1. 149), 'busk together' (I. 178), ' By gods blew hood'
(1. 184), ' tell your stones ' (1. 197), ' chance ' (? = ' a good idea ! '
— 1. 215), ' stout it' (1. 274), tailor's ' hell' (11. 315 etseqq. The
first example of this use in the N.E.D. is from Greene, 1592),
'dostard' (1. 352), 'alife' (1. 397. The first example in the
N.E.D. is of 1601), 'stroke' (1. 436), 'behide' (1. 441. The
N.E.D. has no example of ' behid ' = ' hid ' after 1225, nor of
'behied' = 'hastened' after 1425), 'went out of square' (1. 466),
'die for thought' ( = 'die on account of too much thinking',
1. 510), ' new' (1. 536, cp, I. 670), ' He watched ye once for ever'
0- 539), 'hardly' (? = ' promptly ', 1. 546), 'tibs' (1. 594), 'tosser'
(1. 645), 'wring' (? = ' writhe', 1. 668), 'trifeler' (1. 694), 'pack it'
(? = ' put up with it ', 1. 800), ' set at thy heart ' ( = ' take to heart',
1. 807), ' muskadine ' (1. 814), ' disposed ' (? = ' is disposed ', 1. 830),
'to thee' (? = *! say to thee', 1. ^']^), 'may the candel carry'
(1. 894), ' varry ' (? = ' hesitate ', ' refuse ', 1. 895).'
Concerning the Arraignment of Paris there seems nothing to
add to what has been already said. The obvious companion
to it, the Hunting of Cupid, is unfortunately only known from
fragments : these, such as they are, will be found collected in
the present volume.
'WOUNDS OF CIVIL WAR' 287
The close literary relationship of Lodge's Wounds of Civil
War with Marlowe's writings is of course obvious, the resem-
blances with Tambitrlaine and Edward II being particularly
close. As an instance of the connexion Mr. C. Crawford cites
the lines from the last named play :
Immortall powers, that knowes the painfull cares.
That waites vpon my poore distressed soule,
O leuell all your lookes vpon these daring men (Edw. 11, 2302-4),
for comparison with :
Immortall powers that know the painefull cares,
That waight vpon my poore distressed hart,
O bend your browes and leuill all your lookes
Of dreadfull awe vpon these daring men [Wounds, 11. 18 14-17).
The title of A Knack to Know an Honest Man, as has been
said, is an obvious imitation of A Knack to Know a Knave.
This was a very popular play and a good many allusions to the
title may be traced, if we assume that it was not merely a current
proverbial phrase. It is possible that both plays may be alluded
to in the title : ' The Triall of true Friendship ; Or perfect
mirror, wherby to discerne a trustie friend from a flattering
Parasite. Otherwise, a knacke to know a knaue from an
honest man. By a perfit mirrour of both ... By M. B.', a
pamphlet issued by Valentine Simmes in 1596.
Turning to the plays of 191 1 we come first to the early
Api2cs and Virginia. With regard to this the editor, Dr. R. B.
McKerrow, writes : ' The play is stated to have probably been
acted as early as 1563 (Collier in Hazlitt's Dodsiey, iv. 107;
Fleay, Stage, p. 61), but there appears to be no evidence. It
has been conjectured that the initials R. B. stand for Richard
Bower, who was master of the Chapel children in 1559 (Fleay,
Biog. Chron., i. 27). Evidence for or against the attribution of
the play to him seems to be entirely wanting. It should, how-
ever, be pointed out that as Bower had been buried at Green-
wich in 1 561 (C. C. Stopes, William Hunnis, 1910, pp. 145-6,
p p 2
288 NOTES ON PUBLICATIONS
and Stows London, ed. Strype, 1720, app. i, p. 92), he cannot,
as Fleay suggested, have been a master at Westminster in 1563,
nor would there presumably have been much reason for conceal-
ing his name in 1575. There were several other writers at
about this date who had the same initials, but there seems to be
nothing which should lead us to identify the author of Apius
and Virginia with any of them. An R. B. in 1576 introduced
to the public George Pettie's Petite Palace of Pleasure^ which
contains the story of Appius and Virginia, but the play and the
novel appear to be entirely unconnected. So far as I am aware
there are no early allusions to the play, although according
to Fleay it was ridiculed in Loves Labour s Lost and A Mid-
summer Night's Drea7n (Fleay, Stage, p. 61). In modern times
the first critic to have seen a copy of it would appear to have
been Coxeter (Baker, Biog. Dram., 1812, i (2), 560 ; cf. p. Ixxiv).'
As to Edward I it should perhaps be mentioned that Fleay
{Biographical Chronicle, ii. 157) supposes the piece to have been
acted by Strange's men, on the ground of a supposed allusion to
Shakespeare in 1. 761. The passage, which he misquotes, by
no means calls for the interpretation he puts upon it. But,
nevertheless, supposing the play to be identical with Henslowe's
Longshanks, and seeing that that piece was the private property
of Edward Alleyn, there is nothing unlikely in the supposition
that Strange's men may have been the original owners. The
sources of the play, in chronicles and ballads, have been fully
discussed in dissertations by W. Thieme (Halle, 1903) and
E. Kroneberg (Jena, 1903).
One point regarding George a Green calls for comment,
namely, the two manuscript notes on the title-page of the Duke
of Devonshire's copy. It has sometimes been supposed — by
the General Editor among others — that these notes were no
older than J. P. Collier. A careful inspection, however, has
dispelled all doubt on the subject, and it may be added that
their genuineness is attested in a letter from Sir E. A. Bond,
formerly principal librarian of the British Museum, which is
now inserted in the copy at Chatsworth. A further interesting
'GEORGE A GREEN' 289
point arises in connexion with the interpretation to be placed on
the second of these notes. It runs : ' Ed. luby saith that the
play was made by Ro. Gree . . .' Concerning this Dr. R. B.
McKerrow writes as follows :
' It may be worth while to point out that there is a possible,
though perhaps hardly probable, explanation of this curious note
which seems to have been entirely overlooked. It depends on
the obsolete use of 'by' in the sense of 'after ' or ' in allusion to '.
We find the word thus used in such passages as * Let it [a town]
be term'd yEnea, by your [Aeneas'] name.' — ' Rather Ascania,
by your little sonne.' {Dido, ¥2^), or ' Talke I of a . . . woolfe,
a fox, or a camelion, any lording whom they do not affect it is
meant by' {Nashes Lenten Stuffe, 13"^). An example in which
we have the actual phrase ' made by ' occurs in A Knack to
Know a Knave (Hazlitt's Dodsley, vi. 565) :
And from his pocket straight he drew this counterfeit,
And said 'twas made by beauteous Alfrida.
i.e. that it was a portrait of her.
Now one of the central incidents of George a Green, and one
which was most likely to take the popular fancy, is that in which
George compels Sir Nicholas Mannering to eat, seals and all,
a commission which he has brought from the Earl of Kendal.
It so happens that a similar incident is recorded of Robert
Greene by Nashe {Strange Newes, C3^): ' I sawe him [Greene]
make an Apparriter once in a Tauern eate his Citation, waxe
and all, very handsomly seru'd twixt two dishes.'
Robert Greene was a well-known figure in his day and was
undoubtedly much talked of after his death. Is it not possible
that Juby fancied that the incident of George a Green and
Mannering in the play had been suggested by Robert Greene's
treatment of the apparitor ; ^ and that the true meaning of the
^ Unfortunately the manuscript of the romance on which the play is based is
undated, so that we do not know exactly when this incident found its way into
the story — but in any case Juby would hardly have troubled about a point like
290 NOTES ON PUBLICATIONS
note is not that the play was written by Greene, but that it was
aimed at him or made use of incidents of his Hfe ? It is true
that such an explanation supposes both Juby and the writer of
the note to have been persons of no great intelligence, but we
must remember that we are not dealing with the researches of
serious critics but merely with a rough and careless note of what
was probably a scrap of theatrical gossip picked up in a pot-
house.
As some slight support for the proposed interpretation it
might perhaps be argued that the note is hardly in the form
which we should have expected it to take if it had been intended
either as a correction or as an expansion of the note higher on
the page — and one or other of these it must certainly be if it is
meant to bear upon the authorship. To me at least it seems
rather to have been jotted down as a scrap of entirely indepen-
dent information. But a point like this is, and must remain,
a matter of individual opinion.'
The main interest of Caesar s Revenue is the relation it bears
to the dramatic and poetic production of the early nineties of
the sixteenth century. The resemblances to the plays both
of Marlowe and Kyd are many and obvious, and no attempt
will be made here to enumerate them. A few less obvious
reminiscences, which have been pointed out by Mr. Charles
Crawford, may be suitably recorded, as they help to fix the
date of composition. One of the most striking is to the opening
of Daniel's Rosamond, first published in 1592 :
Out from the horror of infernall deepes,
My poore afflicted ghost comes here to plain it ;
compare :
Out of the horror of those shady vaultes, . . ,
My restles soule comes heere to tell his wronges (11. 1974-7).
this, any more than he would about the anachronism of introducing contemporary
incidents into a play dated some centuries before.
'CAESAR'S REVENGE' 291
Again compare :
A stately Pallace, whose fayre doble gates :
Are wrought with garnish'd Carued luory,
And stately pillars of pure bullion framd.
With Orient Pearles and Indian stones imbost (11. 849-52);
with :
The royall riches and exceeding cost,
Of euery pillour and of euery post ;
Which all of purest bullion framed were,
And with great pearles and pretious stones embost
(Spenser, Faery Queen, III. i. 32) :
or consider :
The purple Hyacinth of PhcBbus Land :
Fresh Amarinthtis that doth neuer die,
And faire Narcisstts deere resp[l]endent shears (11. 900-2) ;
which seems a merely bungled recollection of :
Fresh Hyacinthus, Phoebus paramoure,
Foolish \_N^arcisse, that likes the watry shore,
Sad Amaranthus, made a flowre but late
{Faery Queen, III. vi. 45) ;
or again compare :
Most prudent heads, that with your councels wise,
The pillars of the mighty Rome sustaine, . . .
And Rome that whilom wont to Tiranize,
And in the necks of all the world hath rang'd (11. 948-54) ;
with :
Those prudent heads, that with theire counsels wise
Whylom the Pillours of th'earth did sustaine,
And taught ambitious Rome to tyrannise,
And in the neck of all the world to rayne
{Faery Queen, Dedicatory sonnet to Hatton) ;
292 NOTES ON PUBLICATIONS
which incidentally shows us how to emend the awkward 'rang'd';
or 11. 1451-4 with I. V. I, or 11. 1902-7 with III. iv. 17, confused
remembrance accounting for the hopeless tangle of the thought,
or the line :
And without starres do sayle 'gainst starres and winde (1. 2417);
with :
But saile withouten starres gainst tide and wind (III. iv. 9),
which again suggests an obvious emendation. It is clear that
the author of the play knew Spenser and was quite willing to
plunder him. But no thefts have been discovered from the
Faery Qtieen later than book III. It is therefore a legitimate
conjecture, though for obvious reasons no more, that the play,
which, as we have seen, must have been written not before 1592,
the date of Daniel's Rosamond, was also written not later than
1596, the date of the second instalment of the Faery Queen. In
general, as has been said above, the dependence upon Marlowe
is too obvious to need definite proof, but one interesting side-
issue may be mentioned, though its bearing is important rather
for Marlowe than for our present play. It is clear that the
anonymous author of Caesar s Revenge knew and copied Doctor
Faustus. He imitates the line :
Clad in the beauty of a thousand starres {Faustus, 1. 1342) ;
in :
Clad in the beauty of my glorious lamps (1. 1 2 1 9) ;
and alludes to the phrase :
For he confounds hell in Elizimn {Fa7istus, 1. 295) ;
in the line :
Hell and Elisiuvt must be digd in one (1. 2541).
•CAESAR'S REVENGE' 293
Now, could it be argued that the expression, for it is nothing
more, in 1. 2516 : * Hell craues her right' was necessarily bor-
rowed from Faustus' words 'Hell claims his right' (1. 1287), it
would be interesting, for those words first occur in the 1616
text, that of 1604 reading: 'Hell calls for right', which is
certainly less suggestive of the phrase in question. The point
cannot be argued with any certainty, but were the conclusion
accepted it would not, of course, astonish readers of the Taming
of A Shrew. Also an exactly similar connexion may be shown
to exist in the case of A Kiiack to Know a Knave, printed as
early as 1 594. There, as Mr. Crawford again points out, occurs
the line :
My heart is hardend, I cannot repent (Hazlitt's Dodsley, vi. 520),
which exactly reproduces one in the 1616 text of Faustus
(1. 629), whereas the 1604 text reads :
My hearts so hardned I cannot repent ;
while furthermore the devil in A Knack is named ' Asteroth ',
as is one of those raised by Faustus in 1616 (' Asterote' 16 16,
1. 1 1 57) but not in 1604. (The references to Faustus given
above are to Tucker Brooke's Marlowe, 19 10.)
The academic origin of Caesar s Revenge is abundantly clear,
and this makes any connexion with the regular London drama
to some extent improbable. That the subject was there treated
about the same time is however certain. A ' seser & pompie '
is recorded by Henslowe as having been acted by the Lord
Admiral's servants at the Rose in 1594 and 1595, being new on
8 Nov. the former year. A second part of the same was new
on 18 June 1595, but only one subsequent performance is
recorded. On 22 May 1602, we know from the same source,
Munday, Drayton, Webster, Middleton, and possibly others were
at work on a * sesers ffalle ', for the same company. The fact
that the earlier piece was in two parts makes it practically certain
that it had nothing to do with the Oxford play, though if this
Qq
294 NOTES ON PUBLICATIONS
had by any chance come into Henslowe's hands there is no
reason to suppose that it might not have been put on the
London stage.
The circumstances of pubhcation, as pointed out in the
reprint, are a little obscure. A careful examination, however,
of the four copies there recorded places beyond question the
fact that the undated title-page is the original first leaf, and
the dated one a cancel. In the British Museum copy some idle
person has written a number of figures below the imprint. Start-
ing with the printed date 1607, he has written 1608, 1609, 16 10,
and so on in order till he came to the bottom of the page. It
has been proposed to regard these dates as indicating that
performances of the play took place in those years. It would
be hard indeed to imagine a more fatuous suggestion.
With regard to Sir Thomas More the editor should perhaps
apologize for having in the introductory note departed somewhat
from the severely impersonal tone usual in the Society's publi-
cations, and for introducing a certain amount of controversial
matter. His excuse must be that the peculiar nature of the case
made some dependence on, and consequently some criticism of,
his predecessors a necessity, and it seemed therefore best to say
in one place whatever there was to be said on the subject.
Any way his procedure obviates the necessity of adding any-
thing here.
There are two points that should be mentioned concerning
previous publications. One is that the source of the Play of
Lucrece seems to have Ipeen traced by Professor W. Creizenach
of Cracow to a writing of a certain humanist Bonaccorso da
Montemagno of Pistoja, De vera nobilitate. His account of the
matter will be found in the Shakespeare-J ahrbuch^ 191 1, p. 200.
The other point is concerned with the editor's suggestion
regarding 'Thomas Barker' on p. 221 of these Collections.
Subsequent inquiry has both confirmed and corrected the
conjecture there advanced. The fact is that Langbaine had
before him not only Kirkman's catalogue of 1671 but Archer's
of 1656. From the former he took the title ' Fidele and For-
PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS 295
tunatus ', but on glancing at the latter he inadvertently looked
at the entry of Dekker's ' Fortunatus ' instead of that of ' Fidele
and Fortunata', and copied down the author's name there given,
which is misprinted Thomas Barker. Thus the misprint which
the editor suspected did actually occur, but it was Archer's, not
Langbaine's.
Qq2
BODENHAM'S BELVEDERE
Quotations from The Virtuous Octavia and A Knack to
Know an Honest Man.
Belvedere, or the Garden of the Muses, first published in 1 600,
with a commendatory sonnet by A. M. to John Bodenham, and
reprinted in 16 10, consists of single lines and couplets drawn
from the works of English poets of the sixteenth century and
arranged under categorical headings. The address to the reader
contains a list of the poets chiefly cited, but there is no other
indication of the authorship of the quotations. Mr. Charles
Crawford has recently performed the astonishing feat of identi-
fying the sources of the majority of the lines, and has incidentally
shown that many of them are not literal quotations, but rather
sentences based on a phrase of some poet, and frequently re-
appearing in a slightly different form in other compilations.
The general results of the investigation, together with detailed
analyses of two sections, have been published in Englische
Studien, xliii. 198-228. Since, however, members may be
interested to see how the inquiry bears on the Society's work,
Mr. Crawford has kindly prepared a list of the lines quoted
from The Vertuous Octavia and A Knack to Knoiv an Honest
Man. The references to Belvedere are to the pages of the
reprint published by the Spenser Society in 1875, those to the
plays to the lines of the Malone Society's editions.
From Vertuous Octavia.
I Belvedere, p. 18, ' Of Vertue.'
With honors eyes let vertues plaints be scand.
Dedication, 1. 6.
BODENHAM'S BELVEDERE 297
2 p. 2 1 7, ' Of Time.'
Faire baits of time doth all the world devoure.
Should be :
Faire baites of time which dooth us all devoure.
Oclavia, 1. 26.
3 p. 202, * Of Pleasure, &c.'
Pleasures (like posting guests) make but small stay,
Where griefes bide long, and leave a score to pay.
Should be :
Our pleasures, (posting guests,) make but small stay,
And never once looke backe when they are gone :
Where greefes bide long, and leave such scores to pay ;
11- 31-3-
4 p. 91, ' Of Praise.'
Safetie may breed delight, not nourish praise.
p. 61, * Of Kings and Princes.'
It's greater care to keepe, than get a crowne.
Should be :
Tis greater care, to keepe, then get, a crowne.
1. 141.
1. 152.
pp. 18-19, *0f Vertue.'
Vertue doth raise by very small degrees.
Where in a moment Fortune casteth downe.
Should be :
Vertue dooth raise by small degrees we see :
Where in a moment Fortune casts us downe.
n. 153-4.
p. 1 50, ' Of Fortune, &c.'
On mischiefes maine mishap full saile doth beare.
Should be :
On mischiefes maine, full sayles mishap doth beare :
1. 176.
298 BODENHAM'S BELVEDERE
8 p. 202, * Of Pleasure, &c.*
It's true delight, to know no cause of griefe.
Should be :
Ti's true delight, to know no cause of greefe,
9 p. 9, ' Of Conscience.'
A stained conscience finds no joy at all.
1. 189.
1. 192.
10 p. 190, ' Of Teares.'
As some men weepe that are not rightly sad,
So many smile that are not rightly glad.
Should be :
For as some weepe, that are not passing sad :
So many laugh that are not rightly glad.
11. 197-8.
11 p. 1 99, * Of Courage.*
As courage addeth wings to brave desire,
So bloodie shewes doth quench incensed ire.
Should be :
And courage added winges to our desire.
To present fight, we all our selves dispose :
With bloudie showers, to quenche incensed ire.
11. 237-9.
1 2 p. 90, ' Of Fame, &c.'
Fame, bad concealer of our close intents.
1. 333-
13 p. 46, ' Of Jealousie.'
Suspition often wounds as deepe as death.
Should be :
Where now suspition wounds as deepe as death.
1. 539.
BODENHAM'S BELVEDERE 299
14 p. 146, * Of Feare, &c.'
Delay doth much torment a doubtfull mind.
Should be :
O how delay torments a doubtfull minde.
15 p. 146, ' Of Feare, &c.'
Hardly we credit what imports our ill.
16 p. 50, ' Of Wit & Wisdom/
Slow to beleeve, from wisdome doth proceed.
Should be :
But slow beleefe from wisdome doth proceed.
544-
1.581.
1. 582.
1 7 p. 46, * Of Jealousie.'
O Jealousie, when truth once takes thy part,
No mercie-wanting Tyrant so severe.
Should be :
O Jelousie, when truthe once takes thy part,
What mercy-wanting tyrant so severe ?
11. 618-19.
18 p. 14, 'Of Truth.'
The seate of Truth is in our secret hearts,
Not in the tongue, which falshood oft imparts.
11. 662-3.
19 p. 20, ' Of Vertue.'
As feare of torment holds the wicked in.
So vertues love make good men loath their sin.
Should be :
As feare of torment houlds the wicked in :
So vertues love makes good men loath their sinne.
11. 672-3.
300 BODENHAM'S BELVEDERE
20 p. 19. *OfVertue.'
Vertue most grieveth at her owne disgrace.
Should be :
Why, vertue grieves but at his owne disgrace,
1. 706.
21 p. 99, * Of Patience.'
The minds distresse, with patience is reliev'd.
Should be :
And mindes distrest, with patience doth relieve :
1. 707.
22 p. 61, ' Of Kings and Princes.*
He is no king, that is affections slave.
Should be :
He is no Prince, that is affections slave.
1. 742.
23 P- 163, * Of Affection, &c.'
Desire being fierce, is spring of sighes and teares.
Should be :
O fearce desire, the spring of sighes and teares,
1. 1024.
24 p. 205, ' Of Paine.'
It's paine and griefe, to beare and suffer wrong :
But shame and sinne to him that causeth it.
Should be :
Tis paine, and griefe, to beare and suffer wrong,
But shame and sinne to him that dooth the same :
11. 1 146-7.
25 p' 99. * Of Patience.'
True patience can mildly suffer wrong.
Where rage and furie doe our lives defame.
Should be :
True patience can mildly suffer long^
Where rage and furie do our lives defame.
11. 1 148-9.
BODENHAM'S BELVEDERE 301
26 p. 115, * Of Treason, &c.'
It's madnesse to give way to treacherie,
Without due vengeance to su:h injurie.
Should be :
But I am wrong'd you say, and tis base feare,
Without revenge to suffer injurie :
Its cowardize unworthy wrongs to beare,
And madnesse to give way to trecherie,
27 p. 199, * Of Courage, &c/
It's cowardise, unworthie wrongs to beare.
11. 1 1 54-7-
1. 1 1 56.
28 p. 50, * Of Wit and Wisdom.'
All wisdomes heires are jealous of their fall.
Should be :
But wisdomes heires are jealious of their fall ;
1. 1 1 98.
29 p. 19, ' Of Vertue.'
A vertuous act seemes straunge in some mens sight.
1. 1200.
30 p. 'j^^ 'Of Justice, &c.'
True noble minds doe still respect the right.
Should be :
But noble mindes are carefull of the right,
1. 1202.
31 p. 199, ' Of Courage, &c.'
Where wronged valour reignes, it's hard to find
Such pittie, as may honours pride controll.
Should be :
Where wronged valour raignes tis hard to finde,
Such pitty as may honors pride controule.
11. 1550-1.
R r
302 BODENHAM'S BELVEDERE
32 p. 205, * Of Paine, &c.'
With ease a sparke, with paine is quencht a flame.
1. 1555.
2,3 p. 172, ' Of the Tongue, &c.'
When swords have pleaded, words doe come too late.
Should be :
When swords have pleaded, words wil come too late.
1- 1559.
34 p. 61, * Of Kings and Princes.'
No fall like his that falleth from a crowne.
1- 1579-
35 p. 85, 'OfWarre.'
Who best doth speed in warre, small safetie finds.
1. 1627.
36 p. 89, * Of Fame, &c.'
Fame hath two wings ; the one of false report :
The other hath some plumes of veritie.
11. 1646-7.
Sy p. 71, • Of Honor, &c.'
High honour, not long life, the treasure is,
Which noble mindes without respect defend.
11. 1656-7.
38 p. 71, * Of Honor, &c.'
The praise of honour is not alwaies blood.
Should be :
The prize of honor is not alwaies bloud.
1. 1658.
39 P- 63, ' Of Kingdomes, &c.'
Wretched the state where men desire to die.
Should be :
O wretched state where men make haste to dye.
1. 1660.
BODENHAM'S BELVEDERE 303
40 p. 199, ' Of Courage, &c.'
True valour, feeles nor griefe nor miserie.
41 p. 77, ' Of Justice, &c/
Justice, not pittie, fits a princes mind.
1. 1661.
42 p. 77, ' Of Justice, &c.'
Men arm'd with justice, know not how to feare.
Should be :
I arm'd with justice, know not how to feare.
1. 1663.
43 p. 72, ' Of Honor, &c.'
High honour cryes revenge upon his foe.
Should be :
High honor cries revenge upon our foe :
1. 1667.
1. 1749.
44 p. 89, ' Of Fame, &c.'
The chiefest thing a princes fame to raise,
Is, to excell those that are excellent.
Should be :
The rarest thing a Princes fame to raise,
Is to excell those that are excellent :
11. 1764-5.
45 p. 217, ' Of Time.'
By time and wisdome, passions are supprest.
Should be :
With time, and wisedome, passions rage suppresse.
1. 1771.
46 p. 71, * Of Honor, &c.'
Honour doth scorne the height of Fortunes pride.
Should be :
My honor scornes the height of fortunes pride.
1. 1837.
R r 2
304 BODENHAM'S BELVEDERE
47 p. 19, * Of Vertue.'
A vertuous mind cannot be miserable.
Should be :
That vertuous minds can never wretched be.
1. 1847.
48 p. 163, ' Of Affection, &c.'
Desire doth spring from what we wish and want.
1. 1969.
49 p. 43, ' Of Beautie.'
There's none so faire, whose beautie all respect.
1. 2013.
From A Knacke to Know an Honest Man.
1 Belvedere, p. 14, * Of Truth.'
Truth soundeth sweetly in a sillie tongue.
I. 192.
2 p. 6, ' Of Heaven.'
What heaven decrees, follie may not withstand.
Should be :
What God wil have, folly may not withstand.
3 p. 42, * Of Beautie.'
Beautie to dwell with woe, deformes it selfe.
Should be :
Beautie to dwel with wo were to to bad,
4 p. 208, ' Of Povertie.'
Contented povertie, is happinesse.
Should be :
My povertie is happines to me.
1. 285.
1-44:
1. 459-
BODENHAM'S BELVEDERE 305
5 P- 95. ' Of Friendship.'
True friendship maketh light all heavie harmes.
Should be :
True friendship lightneth all these burdenous harme
1. 564.
6 p. 175, ' Of Flatterie, &c/
The best dissembler, hath the bravest wit.
7 p. 1 99, ' Of Courage, &c.'
Courage and industrie can never want.
8 p. 208, ' Of Povertie, &c.'
Diligence most enableth poorest men.
Should be:
But diligence inableth poorest men.
1- 593-
1. 602.
1. 604.
9 p. 135, 'Of Gluttonie, &c.'
Worldlings (like Antes) eat up the gaines of men.
Should be :
Ha ha ha, a worldling ryght, the poets song
Was well applied in this,
For like the antes they eate the gaine of mens wealth,
11. 809-11.
10 p. 17, ' Of Vertue.'
If sinne were dead, vertue could not be knowne.
Should be :
If sinne were dead vertue were never scene.
1. 851.
11 p. 159, 'Of the Mind.'
It's pittie gold should sunder vertuous minds.
Should be :
Tis pitty that gold should part two noble minds,
1. 9S6.
3o6 BODENHAM'S BELVEDERE
12 p. 208, ' Of Povertie, &c.'
The love of poore men, great mens harmes debates.
Should be :
Thus poore mens love, doth great mens harmes debate.
1. 991.
13 p. 232, ' Of Death.'
Death is too good for base dishonest life.
Should be :
For death is too good an end for him that favours
dishonestie.
11. 997-8.
14 p. 208, * Of Povertie, &c.'
Love never keepes where wretchednes abides.
Should be :
Phil. I seeke for love, saw you not him of late.
Ophi. He never keepes, where wretched men abide.
11. 1085-6.
15 p. 208, 'Of Povertie, &c.'
Poore men should suffer for no great mens sinnes.
Should be :
Or poore men suffer for a great mans sinne ?
1- 1353'
THE HUNTING OF CUPID
A LOST PLAY BY GEORGE PEELE.
The Arraignment of Paris having appeared among the
recent reprints of the Malone Society, it is natural to inchide
in this place the few and scattered remains of Peele's other play
of a pastoral or mythological nature, the Hicnting of Cupid. In
the Registers of the Stationers' Company appears the entry :
26 lulij [1591]
Richard Tones Enlred vnto him for his copye vnder thandes of the Bishop of
London and IMaster Watkins a booke intituled the Huntinge of
Cupid wrytten by George Peele Master of Artes of Oxeford./
Provyded alwayes that yf yt be hurtfull to any other Copye before
lycenced, then this to be voyde vj'i
[Arber's Transcript, II. 591.]
What reason the licenser may have had for suspecting that
Jones was contemplating some fraud on a previous copy holder
is not clear, but there is no reason to think that the condition
imposed proved any obstacle to publication. For, as we shall
see in a mxoment, the play is quoted in England's Parnassus,
a collection which, so far as is known, contains extracts from
printed sources only. Unfortunately, however, no copy appears
to have survived.
Most of what we know of the contents of the Hunting of
Cupid comes from the strangely muddled jottings which fill three
folio pages in a commonplace-book kept by William Drummond
of Hawthornden, now preserved in the library of the Society of
Antiquaries at Edinburgh (Drummond MSS., vol. VII). The
writer evidently noted down, in a very bad hand, any lines or
phrases that struck his fancy as he read the play. Thus very
little of a consecutive nature can be gathered from the manuscript.
3o8 THE HUNTING OF CUPID
the chief value of which Hes in the fact that it enables us to
identify, as belonging to this play, passages which we find quoted
elsewhere merely as Peele's. As might be expected Drummond's
notes are not always very intelligible, and 11. 9-12 particularly
have proved provokingly obscure. It is perhaps as well that
they should remain so : nevertheless, as certain students may be
interested in the matter, it may be permissible to note that 1. 9
may possibly allude to a rather favourite novella theme found in
the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles (no. 82) and Fortini's Novelle de
Novizi (no. 1 2), that 11. lo-i i are clearly the origin of Drummond's
own epigram 'Of Nisa' (ed. Turnbull, p. 104), while the best com-
mentary on 1. 12 is perhaps the prologue to Ariosto's Suppositi.
It appears from the introduction to Dyce's edition of Peele, that
Drummond's extracts from XkiQ. Hunting of Cupid 2X^ among his
notes of ' Bookes red anno 1609 be me ', which supports the pre-
sumption that the play was printed. The text given below has
been prepared in part from the facsimile of the first page given by
Bullen in his edition of Peele, partly from photographs of pages
two and three, obtained through the kindness of Mr. J. Anderson
of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. To Mr. Anderson the
editor is also indebted for verifying certain readings in the
manuscript. The transcript made by David Laing, from which
Dyce printed, appears to have been neither quite accurate nor
quite complete. Bullen merely modernizes Dyce. The repro-
duction of the third page which accompanies the present reprint
is considerably reduced.
Our second and third sources of information are the well-
known anthologies Eng/ands ParJiassus and England s Helicon,
both printed in 1600, and therefore some years earlier than
Drummond's notes. Pm^nassus gives the ten lines of the passage
describing the arrows of Cupid (cf. Drummond, 11. 42-7). It is
clear that Drummond's extract is here badly garbled, but never-
theless in the last line it seems to preserve two readings, his and
fetcht, superior to those of the printed text. Helicon preserves
fourteen lines of the Melampus song represented by mere
fragments in the notes (Drummond, 11. 57-60).
BY GEORGE PEELE 309
Lastly, the Rawlinson MS. (Poet. 85) in the Bodleian Library
preserves a passage (there forming eleven lines) descriptive of
love. This occurs with many variants, and with the addition of
four extra lines before the final couplet, in Drummond (11. 14-28).
The manuscript is of about the year 1600: the author's name
has been added in a different but contemporary hand. The first
seven lines of this passage (there printed as five) are also found
as an incidental song in the anonymous play entitled The Wisdom
of Doctor Dodypoll, entered in the Stationers' Register, 7 Oct.
1600, and printed the same year.
Parnasstcs, Helicon, and the Rawlinson manuscript all assign
their quotations to Peele, but since they give no further infor-
mation it is solely owing to Drummond that we are able to refer
them to the Hunting of Cupid.
From Drummond's Commonplace Book.
The Hunting, of Cupid by George Peele of oxford. Ai
Pastoral
on the snowie browes of albion. sueet voodes sueet rufiing
brookes, y* chide in a pleasant tune and make quiet murmur
leaning the lilies, mints and vater flouers in ther gentle
glide : making her face the marke of his vondring
eies and his eyes the messengers of his voundit hart,
like a candle keepeth but a litil roome yet blazeth
round about, heardgroome v' his strauberrie lasse
some v* his suethart making false position putting lo
a schort sillabe vher a long one should be.
3 sueet voodes] Drummond writes u and w indifferently for the semi-vowel;
initially u becomes v ; hence the strange spellings as above.
5 leauingl i.e. laving.
6 making] k altered from n her] apparently altered from his
1 1 schort J the words usually written with initial sh are a puzzle throughout this
MS. Only once (/. 44 shafte) do we find the ordinary form. Otherwise in most
cases it looks like sth. This, however, is an impossible spelling, and no doubt it is sch
that is meant.
S S
3IO THE HUNTING OF CUPU)
some a false supposition
to celebrate Mistris holiday in Idlenesse.
vhat thing is loue for (vel I vot) loue is a thing
it is a pricke ; it is a sting
it is a prettie, prettie thing
it is a fire it is a cole
vhose flame creepes in at eurie hole.
and as my vit doth best deuise
loues duelling is in ladys eies : 20
from vhence do glaunce loues pearcing darts
that mack such holes into o"" harts
and al the vorld herin accord
loue is a great & mightie lord
and vhen he list to mount so hie
V* ven9 he in heue doth lie
and euer more hath been a God
since Mars & sche plaid eue & od
Kis a litle and vse not. A 2
Q. vhy kissings good. R to stirre your bloud to make yow 30
vel dispossd to play, ab aquilone omne malum.
vuld haue moued teares in vreath her selfe.
vrinckled sorrow sate in furrowes of a faire face
famous for his il fortune, yow y* thinke ther is no
heauen but on earth, yow y* sucke poison insteed of
honney. he excedeth fieds in crueltie & fortune
in vnconstancie.
set vp cynthea by day and cytherea by nyt.
sche strakit his head & mist his homes.
vho bluntly bespake her. 40
Grew this suet rose in this soure stalke,
at Venus entreate for cupid her sone
Cupids these arrowes by Vlcan are cunningly done,
arrows ther first is loue the second shafte is hate
13 in] doubtful. 22 into] t doubtful. 26 venQJ i.e. Venus.
32 vreath] i.e. wrath. her] apparently altered from him
39 his head]^rj/h altered. 43 VlcanJ i.e. Vulcan, cf. II. 47 and ^A-
BY GEORGE PEELE 311
but this is hope from vhence suet comfort springs
this lelousie in bassest minds doth duell.
his mettal Vlcans cyclops fetcht from Hel
a smaking kis y' vakt me v* the dine.
knew good and eschew it praise chastness & follow
lustful loue like the old athenien 50
al quicklie com home by veeping crosse
highest imperial orbe and throne of the thunder.
et non morierj invltQ schelter and schade
holdith them faster then vlcans fine vires kept Mars
a song to be sung for a vager a dish of damsons new
gathered off the trees.
MelampQ vhen vil loue be voide of feares
vhen lelousie hath nather eies nor eies
Melamp9 tel me vhe is loue best fed
vhen it hath sucke the sueet y* ease hath breed 60
licoris as sueet to him as licorice.
Cor sapit, et pulmo loquitr, fel comouet,
splen ridere facit, cogit amore iecur
a hot liuer most be in a louer.
To commend aney thing is the Italian manner of
craning
My hart is like a point of geometrie indiuisible A3
and vher it goes it goes al.
Hard hart y' did thy reed (poore schephard) brake
thy reed y* vas the trumpet of thy vit 70
yet thought vnvorthie sound thy Phenixs Praise
And v'. this slender pipe her glorie raise
Cupid enraged to see a thousand boyes
as faire as he sit shooting in her eies.
fel downe. and sche,
pluckt al his plumes, and made her selfe a fan
47 Cyclops] second c altered from 1 49 knew] for know
50 athenien] />wj/3/y a final s deleted. 58 nor eies] for nor ears
60 sucke]yor suckt 63 iecur] r altered}
6g, 70 reed] second e altered from a 71 thought] /(?r though
S S 2
312 THE HUNTING OF CUPID
suering him her true litle seruig man.
Muse chuse :
My mistris feeds the ayre ayre feeds not her
lyt of the lyt sche Is, delyt supreame. 80
yet so far from the lytnes of her sex.
for sche is the bird vhose name doth end in X
Not clouds cast from this spungie elemet
nor darkenesse schot from orcQ pitchie eyes
yet both her sunes vailed v*. her arche beauties.
her vords such quickning odors cast
as raise, the sicke and make the soundest thinke
ayre is not vholsome, til her valke be past
more then the fontaines til the vnicornes drinke
a thousand echoes vat vpon her voice 90
+ cupid Those milkie mounts he eurie morning hants.
vher to ther drinke his mothers doues he cals
in my yonger dayes vhen my vitts rana vool
gathering, some prettie lye he coined,
fin.
From England's Parnassus, 1600.
[under the heading * Love ' : sig. Ni, p. 177.]
At Venus intreatie for Cupid her sonne,
These arrowes by Vulcan were cunningly done :
The first is Loue, as heer you may behold,
His feathers head and body are of gold.
The second shaft is Hate, a foe to loue,
And bitter are his torments for to proue.
The third is Hope, from whence our comfort springs,
His feathers are puld from Fortunes wings.
Fourth, lealousie in basest minds doth dwell,
This mettall Vulcans Cyclops sent from hell.
G, Peele.
77 her] X altered. 86 odors] A altered from xd.
87 and make] crossed out probably by mistake. 90 vat] i.t.voait.
(
€&^
..^:ni)
^^^t^y-^ ^ A.. ..O.N
^
riz^^
_.^i-
BY GEORGE PEELE 313
From England's Helicon, 1600.
[sig. E3.]
^ Coridon and Melampus Song.
Cor. Melampus, when will Loue be void of feares ?
Mel. When lealousie hath neither eyes nor eares.
Cor. Melampus, when will Loue be throughly shrieued ?
Mel. When it is hard to speake, and not beleeued.
Cor. Melampus, when is Loue most malecontent ?
Mel. When Louers range, and beare their bowes vnbent.
Cor. Melampus, tell me, when takes Loue least harme ?
Mel. When Swaines sweete pipes are puft, and Trulls are warme.
Cor. Melampus, tell me, when is Loue best fed ?
Mel. When it hath suck'd the sweet that ease hath bred.
Cor. Melampus, when is time in Loue ill spent ?
Mel. When it earnes meede, and yet receaues no rent.
Cor. Melampus, when is time well spent in Loue ?
Mel. When deedes win meedes,and words Loues works doo proue.
FINIS. Geo. Peek.
From MS. Rawl. Poet. 85.
[fol. 13 recto.]
What thinge is loue ? for sure loue is a thinge
Loue is a pricke, loue is a stynge, loue is a ptye, ptye thinge,
Loue is a fyre loue is a colle,
Whose flame creeps in at euerye hoole,
And as my selfe can beste deuyse
His dwellinge is in ladyes eyes
From whence he stootes his dayntye dartes
In to the lusty gallunts hartes.
And euer since was callde a god
That Mars withe Venus playde euen and odd,
Finis M' G: Peelle.
314 THE HUNTING OF CUPID
From The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600.
[sig. A4\]
Enter Cornelia sola, looking vpon the picture of Alber-
dure in a little Jewell, and singing. Enter the Doctor
and the Merchant following, and hearkning to her.
The Song.
What thing is lotie ? for sure I am it is a thing.
It is a prick, it is a thing, it is a prettie, prettie thing.
It is a fire, it is a coale, whose flame creeps in at euery hoale.
And as my wits do best deuise,
Loues dwelling is in Ladies eies.
THE CRUEL DEBTOR
A FRAGMENT OF A MORALITY PRINTED BY COLWELL, C. 1 566.
In the course of the year July 1565 to July 1566 the
following rather confused entry was made in the Registers of
the Stationers' Company : * Recevyd of Thomas colwell for his
lycence for prynting of a ballet intituled an interlude the Cruell
Detter by Wager .... iiij'^' (Arber's Transcript, I. 307). The
play seems to have been published anonymously, at least neither
Archer nor Kirkman, who include it in their lists, the former
distinguishing it as a tragedy, give any author's name. Their
bare entries were copied by subsequent bibliographers, Chetwood
adding the rather unhappy guess * 1669', till Reed drew attention
to the entry in the Register. Collier would seem to have been
the first to record the existence of a fragment ' readily com-
municated to us by Mr. H alii well'. In his Extracts from tJu
Registers of the Stationers Company, 1849 (ii. xiv), he prints
a passage which forms 11. 134-57 below. Another fragment
was already in the Bagford collection in the British Museum,
though it does not seem to have been identified till later
(W. C. Hazlitt, Handbook, 1867, p. 637). It is preserved in
a volume classed as Harl. 5919 (fol. iS''), and consists of a
single leaf, evidently out of a pad of waste, signed C.iii. The
Academy for 9 March 1878, contained an announcement that
' Among the black-letter fragments of Mr. W. B. Scott,
Mr. Edmund Gosse has found two more leaves of the Crti.el
Detter \ These prove to be the fragment previously recorded
by Halliwell and Collier. It consists of a double leaf, evidently
out of a binding, the first signed D and the second being
presumably D4, though, as irregularly made-up quartos are
3i6 THE CRUEL DEBTOR
occasionally found, it might possibly be D6 or even D8. The
whole extant remains, that is the two fragments just mentioned,
were reprinted in the New Shakspere Society's Trmisactions for
1877-9 (i. 2*). The introductory note is signed F. J. Furnivall
and dated 7 March 1878. The text is far from accurate, but
since it was apparently printed at a time when the Bagford
fragment had suffered less from reparations than at present, it
may in some places record readings that are now lost. It has
therefore been occasionally quoted in the notes to the present
reprint. On 8 March 1879, the Scott fragment was presented
to the British Museum and is now classed as C. 40. e. 48.
The identity of the author is uncertain, for the Register
merely gives the name as Wager, and there were, of course,
two dramatic writers of this name, Lewis Wager, whose Mary
Magdalen was printed in 1566, and W. Wager, whose morality,
The Longer thou Livest the More Fool thou Art, seems to have
been registered in 1568-9. The current identification of the
author of the Critel Debtor with W. Wager (usually called
William Wager on no satisfactory ground) seems to have its
source in Hazlitt's Handbook, and is a mere guess. Rudolf
Imelmann in the Archiv f. d. S. d. N. S. (cxi. 209) argues in
favour of Lewis Wager. Not very much weight attaches to his
contention, but his perception that the plot is founded on
Matthew xviii. 23-35 ^^ of real value, since it disposes of the
not very happy suggestion that the play was connected with
the Shylock story. With this view also fall the suggestions
that it may have been the same as the Jew recorded by Gosson
in 1579 {School of Abuse, sig. C6''', fol. 23'', ed. Arber, p. 40), or
as ' Tis good sleeping in a whole Skin, a play ascribed to W. Wager
in Warburton's list.
The cruell Debtter.
To them thou fhalt be welcome I warant thee,
Yea, and in great acceptacyo alfo (fayd hee.)
Now the thynge w^hearfore I was fo angry & mad,
Was thys, I forgate the counceU that of him I had.
^ The goodlyeft thing in the world is comunication Flateri
For what bryngeth thynges to our memoratyon,
Thou and I had lyke fortune wyth Bafileus,
After that maner to thee I wyll playnly dyfcuffe :
I remembred a fayenge of Seneca in a Tragedy,
lo Worthy to be prynted of fuch as loues Flatery.
Fra2is fublimi regnat in aula.
The higher that the court is & the more of nobylytie,
The more falfehed is thearin, & the more Iniquytie,
More flatery is not in the worlde reygnynge
Then is in the courte of any noble kynge.
Now( )us is a kynge of moft honoration
In whofe houfe I thought to haue my habytacyon,
But I came not fo fone wythin Bafileus Palace,
But they dyfclofed me openly vnto my face,
20 And whan they had once fo bewrayed my name
I myght no lenger tary in that court for fhame.
Than (as thou dyddeft) I toke my freyndes councell
Afkyng hym wheare it was beft for me to dwell
He named them of whom we haue fpoke before
Sayeng, that wyth them you may dwell euermore.
And euen now my purpofe was to go thyther.
f[ Of all good fellowfhyp let vs go together : Rigor.
I do not paffe in kynge Bafileus houfe to dwell
I doubt not but that we fhall do euen as well :
30 But fyra, what biddeft thou fee Symulation ?
4[ Thys day he and I had comunication, Flateri
)romyfed me ftraightway to come hether
>our ( )eyndes we fhuld go together :
C.iii. In
T t
The Cruell debtter.
In the worlde is not fo falfe a knaue as hee,
For by hym all ftates of people deceyued bee.
In Byfhops and paftors he is humylitie
And yet muft be full of pryde and crudely tie :
In all the Clergy he femeth to be holynes,
Whan in them is a multytude of wyckednes.
In Magyfl: rates he femeth to be Affabylitie, 40
Yet theare lurketh dyfdayne and Aufterytie,
In the comons he femeth to be neyghbourlynes,
Yet is theare enuye, hate, and coueytoufnes.
I dare fay that hys deceyte further doth wander
Than all the domynyon of kynge Alexander.
I^'gor. ^ Deceyueth he fo, and is neuer deceyued agayne ?
Flateri J Sildome or neuer that I here of, I tel thee plaine.
Rigor» C -By the maffe it were a good deede to deceyue him
And I will tell thee which way we may do it t(
Thou fayefl y he will be here without doubt to day, 5°
Flateri ^ That is wythout queftion, (truly I dare fay.)
K-igoJ'- C Well, whan he cometh we wyll femble out to fall,
we wil ftrike one at another as though we did brawl
What we meane by that he wyll greatly wonder,
Than he wyll come intendyng vs to funder :
Thou fhalt flryke at me, and I at thee wyll fmacke
But let all the ftrypes lyght vpon hys backe.
Flateri |[ Of good fellowlhyp let it be fo euen indede
Let the femblyng knaue haue fomwhat for his mede,
Begyn Harke, by my fayth & trouth I here hym fpyt : <So
to fight Nay holde thy hande, thou may ft not fyght yet.
^igo'"' C ^^ muft be fyghtyng when he doth enter neades,
Or elfe for the fporte I wyll not geue two threades.
C Here enter Symylatyon.
Symu- C! Dommiis vobifcum^ hi principio erat verbum.
iatyon. Yea ? are you fyghtyng ? I purpofe no nere ( )m.
Nemo tutefe periculis offerre potefe.
Zfft erttell Debrttr.
tn tl)cv fpp a tUm to t)o one Q)i[et»D turnr fo)i anoftjet
l^ange ine tf 3 )Dapte not foji pou a bnaupQ) torxttf^t
|pe8,oi <t (ball cod me alt tliat i0 tn mv potx^ctie,
31 ten'grance on pou fo;)D02bpngof ttie fame,
f OH pou l^aue aimod roaDe mp anm0 anb baclt lamr*
C<2^oli tequpicti) no tnojte but a prnptent batte. f uter<
C^a^P but betoolOe wqupze moic if be ftltfinartc. ^v»^
Ct^eacrino uioze teoiib6,ponber comctb a gentiemS. ^vw*
C23p 3f fu i topil be cuen luptb pou botb if 3 can. ^pmtt«
ILI30 U)b«t tbou candi J Ut not bp tbce a (oufe* Vitgo;.^
Ot iS^ a grntletnan of bpns 25ar(!ru0 boufe, f later!
^ti^ nottnrrp.fotne tbpno;u)ptbout boubt is; attipflfe
3f ti/ou t»plt be dtl pou (bal bnotx) tobat tbe caufe iieu
C)lct b0 femble cue fc lue0 to be perfon^ of gtaupt te« m^ni.
C3 (onlbQ>nb inmpbartetobprclorepoucfcnaolti^i fs^pnta^
©pmpfaptbifj ftnetompfelfetofcapebatmefeffe wpon.
3 b)olb bcclaee(to pour (batne)aU potlebotc&eDnei^^
mmc map be $lab at tbe barte betelp ispgo^*
^batti)oudctasi faeceftittb ajB;t»emimauetp»
HDbcarfoze if anpof out feateiei tboutopit bprciofe^
tbe tDOid papne ^ (bame (balligbt on tljp otone nofe.
C^B soot) jlozbil ambnbone anb all mpnet ^^pbHt
3 bane IpueO Ipbe a gentleman all mp Ipfei u§,
23ut nobo 3 am Ipbe to come to bttct rupne
jpeAianb aU mp goob0iCbpibKn anb topfe:
l^e tljat toilOe bange mr,o| bpll tne boptb a bnpf^
3 tnolOc foz^eue bpm^peajfuen taptb a gtob tx)pll>
jfojt 3 am not tuoztbe fo mucb a0 an ^pedecibpll*
^te bP(&bet tbat anp man p^efumetb to clpme
%U fozee in bPSi btiete bi^ban be cbaucetb to fall*
IDoibe to gob tbat 3 bab lolteb bpon tbi0 in tpmr>
trban baO J not ben fo mpfeeable anb tflAll:
9* 3
♦ - »
The cruell Debtter
til they fpy a time to do one fhrewd turne for another
Hange me if I wayte not for you a knauyfh towche
70 Yea, or it fhall cofl me all that is in my powche,
A vengeance on you for workyng of the fame,
For you haue almoft made my armes and back lame.
C God requyreth no more but a penytent harte. Flateri
|[ Mary but he wolde requyre more if he felt fmarte. Symu-
Here entreth Ophiletis. latyon.
f[ Peace, no more words, yonder cometh a gentlema. Rygor.
f[ By lesu I wyll be euen wyth you both if I can. Symu.
f[ Do what thou canft, I fet not by thee a loufe. Rigor.
C It is a gentleman of kyng Bafileus houfe, Flateri
80 He is not mery, fome thyng wythout doubt is amyffe
If thou wylt be ftil you fhal know what the caufe is.
^[ Let vs femble our felues to be perfons of grauytie. Rigor.
C I could fynd in my harte to dyfclofe your knauitie, Symu-
By my fayth if I knew my felfe to fcape harmeleffe latyon.
I wold declare (to your Ihame) all your wickedneffe.
C We may be glad at the harte verely Rygor.
That thou art as farre furth as we in knauery,
Whearfore if any of our feates thou wylt dyfclofe,
the worft payne & fhame fhal light on thy owne nofe.
90 C A good Lord, I am vndone and all myne, Ophile
I haue lyued lyke a gentleman all my lyfe, *^^'
But now I am lyke to come to vtter ruyne
Yea, and all my goods, chyldren and wyfe :
He that wolde hange me, or kyll me wyth a knyfe
I wolde forgeue hym, yea, euen wyth a good wyll,
For I am not worthe fo much as an Oyefterfhyll.
The hygher that any man prefumeth to clyme
The forer is hys hurte whan he chaQceth to fall,
Wolde to god that I had loked vpon this in tyme,
100 Than had I not ben fo myferable and thrall :
D. I
T t 2
The cruell Debtter.
I had not the grace to be wyfe and polytycall,
I neuer mynded to gather any good or treafure
Onely my harte was fet to lyue in pleafure.
I thouht my felfe fo much in fauour wyth the kynge
Truftyng in hys goodnes onely from day to day,
Euer thynckyng that I fhould want nothynge
And alfo impoffyble that euer I fhould decay,
I fpent ftyll, borowed of the king, promyfyng to pay,
But now Proniticus hath fumoned me to a compte,
And alas, my debtes do all my goods furmount. no
Rygor. C Syrs here you not ? thys is a fyt mater for vs,
Speke amonge your felfes a good way of.
If we had imagined amonge vs a whole yere,
We could not haue fuch a thyng againft Bafileus
As we haue occafyon now in thys man here,
Bafileus loueth none of vs it doth well appere,
And as it femeth by thys mans behauour,
Vnto hym he oweth no very great fauour.
Flateri C Now to talke wyth hym is a tyme conueuyent,
For any man being in forow and defolation, 120
To here good councell wyll be glad and dylygent.
Namely in a mater of peryll and dubytation.
Symu- C Let vs go vnto hym, and by hys comunication
latyon. We fhall know more, and then as we do in him fee
So in our councell freyndly to hym we wyll bee.
Rigoi'- C God fpede you fir, 81 you ar welcome into this place
By my faith you are welcome as my harte can thinke
Alack, you are not mery (it femeth by your face,)
Wyll it pleafe you a cup of good wyne to drynke ?
Wyll it pleafe you to go to the goodwife of the clinke ? 130
To fpeke of good wyne, in London I dare fay
Is no better wyne than thear was once to day.
Flateri C Viro aiitem defatigato^ magnum robur vinum auget.
To
The cruell Debtter.
|[ It was tyme to haue in a redynes all thynge Ophile
For yonder cometh Bafileus my Lord and kynge. ^'s-
f[ As far as we can let vs ftande afyde, Rygor.
Tyll he fendeth for you let vs yonder abyde.
|[ I thanke you proniticus for your dylygence, Bafile-
Doubt you not, but your paynes we wyll recompence "s.
140 I am pieafed w the accomptes that you haue taken,
None of your bookes nor bylles fhalbe forfaken
The mofle parte of my debtters haue honeftly payed
A( )d they that weare not redy I haue gently dayed.
|[( )f it plefe your grace we haue not finifht your mind Proni-
Thear is one of your greatefl debtters yet behind, ticus.
We haue perufed the parcelles in your bookes fet,
And we fynd him ten thoufand talents in your debt.
So we affygned hym before your grace to come
And to make a rekenyng for the whole fiime.
150 f[ I wene it be that vnthryfty fellow Ophiletis. Bafi.
f[ Yea truly, if it lyke your grace the fame it is, Proni-
I comaunded hym to be redy here in place ticus.
That we myght brynge hym before your grace.
C Wyth( )tytie I wolde haue hym fought Bafy.
And before myne owne prefence to be brought.
f[ I perceyue that he is euen here at hand, Proni.
I fee that in a redynes yonder he doth ftand.
^ Caufe him before vs in his owne perfon to appere. Bafile.
|[ It fhall not be longe before he be here. Proni.
160 ^ Plucke vp your heart and be of good chere, Rigor.
Feare not I warent you, good fortune is nere.
4E Ophiletis it is the kyng Bafileus comaundement Proni-
That you come before hys maiefty now incontinent, ticus.
^ I am in a redynes truly wyth all humylytie Ophile
To come into the prefence of hys maieftye. ^^^*
C I pray you fyr fpeke a good word for him to y king. Rigor.
CHe
i
The Cruell debtter.
Proni. |[ He knoweth that I am hys owne in all thynge.
Ophile f[ God faue your lyfe the fountayne of nobilitie,
tis. All hayle the very patron of Magnanymytie,
Bleffed be you the author of all worthynes, 170
Honour & prayfe to you the head fprynge of goodnes.
Rigor. ^ O moft myghty, moll valyant and noble kynge
God faue you, god faue you, of all vertue the fprynge.
Bafi. g whom haft thou brought into our prefence w thee ?
Ophi. ^ If it lyke your grace, hys name is Humylytie.
JR-igoi") C Yea, from hys harte I am neuer abfent.
Nor I thynke neuer fhalbe by hys intent.
Bafile- 4E I"^ our accomptes take by our fluard you do know
us. What a fum of money vnto vs you do owe.
Haue you brought hether fuffycient payment 180
To make your compte, after our comaundement ?
Ophile J[ O fyr, I befeche you to be mercyfull to mee,
tis. por I knowledg my felfe fo farre in your debt to bee
That all that I haue is not fuffycient
Of a quarter of my debtes to make payment.
Rigor. J[ Weepe, body of god can you not weepe for a neede }
Speke You mufl loke pyteoufly if you intende to fpeede,
afyde. If you can not weepe, 1 wyll weepe for you :
Ho, ho, ho, I pray you be good to vs now.
Proni. J What meane you in this place to play fuch a parte ? 190
Rigof- C O fyr, I declare the effect of this mans meke hart.
Bafile- C Thear is no more of the mater but onely thys,
us. Thou art a ryotous perfon (doubtles Ophyletis,)
Pryde and prefumtyon hereto haue thee brought,
Much to fpend and lafh out, was euer thy thought,
A fumptous table thou woldeft keepe euery day,
Beyonde thy degree thou dydeft excede in aray.
Rygo^' C that I may fpeke one word, pleafe it your maiefty ?
Bafy. f[ Say whatfoeuer you wyll, we geue you lyberty.
CHys
THE CRUEL DEBTOR 32;
^ NOTES
6 xatrciorziyon,^ first o doubtful.
7 Bafileus,] il doubtful.
8 dyfcufle :J d doubtful.
16 us] u doubtful: Basileus NSS.
17 whofe] o doubtful.
habytacyon] h doubtful.
23 to] t doubtful.
25 QMQxmoxQ.^ first t doubtful.
27 C] dcubful.
31 C] doubtful.
32 romyfed] He promysed NSS.
flraightway] y doubtful.
33 our] [To visite] our NSS.
eyndes] freyndes NSS.
49 t] trym NSS.
50 doubt to] t t doubtful.
53 one] possibly on e.
66 m.] possibly in. but to cum. NSS.
67 Lacuna of one leaf, some 66-68 lines.
104 ihouht] sic.
119 conueuyent,] j/r.
133 Lacuna probably of two leaves, or some 134 lines.
143 A] doubtful.
144 C] doubtful.
154 WythJ the next word was probably all, the 11 being fairly clear. Collier
prints all
NOTES ON DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS
The history of the bibliography of the English drama is more
curious than important, and most of the early works on the
subject have a purely antiquarian interest. It nevertheless
frequently happens that in dealing with the bibliographical
history of a dramatic work it becomes necessary for one reason
or another to refer to the remarks of early writers on the subject.
Thus it is occasionally desirable to show that the existence of
a particular play was known at a particular date. For instance,
Archer's mention of Tom Tyler in 1656 proves that the only
extant edition of the play, that of 1661, was, as it represents
itself, a reprint of an earlier impression. More frequently the
object of such reference is to account for some current miscon-
ception or misstatement. A detailed example of this will be
given below. Anyhow, as a glance through the introductory
notes to the Society's reprints will show, the early bibliographers
of the drama arrogate to themselves a critical importance
altogether disproportionate to their intrinsic merits. For this
reason it has been thought that an annotated list of at least the
more pretentious, if one hesitates to say the more valuable, of
such bibliographical curiosities might find a fitting place in these
Collections.
In order to illustrate how a familiarity with the history of
dramatic bibliography is often necessary for the criticism of
current and received opinions, I will take the case of two obscure
writers named Wager. The name has come up recently
in connexion with two pieces printed by the Society, but the
traditional evidence was not of sufficient importance to merit
detailed treatment. The story may be told here as a warning.
DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS 325
The facts, and what I believe to be the only relevant facts
known, are as follow. A play on the Z,^ and Repentance of Mary
Magdalen was entered in the Stationers' Register in the latter half
of 1 566 and printed as * Made by the learned clarke Lewis Wager '
before the end of the year. Another play, entitled The Longer
thou Livest the more Fool thoti, Art, was entered in 1568-9 and
printed without date as by W. Wager. This W. Wager also
appears as the author of a lost piece, 'TVi- good Sleeping in a
whole Skin, in Warburton's list. There is nothing to show for
what name the initial stood. Now, in 1565-6 a play called The
Cruel Debtor, now known by fragments only, was entered in the
Stationers' Register as written by * Wager ', no name or initial
being given. As regards Lewis Wager and his Mary Magdalen
all is straightforward, but as regards the other pieces the possi-
bilities of confusion are obvious and have not been neglected.
We start with Phillips, who in 1675 mentions William Wager,
being thus apparently the first to invent the Christian name,
and attributes to him not only The Longer thou Livest, but also
Tom Tyler and his Wife and the Trial of Chivalry. Now the
origin of this astonishing entry can be shown to be a misunder-
standing of Kirkman's catalogue of 166 1. The name W. Wager
is there correctly prefixed to the entry of The Longer thou Livest.
Next follow, as beginning with the same letter, for Kirkman
regards the initial alone in his alphabetical arrangement, the
titles Tom Tyler and his Wife and the Trial of Chivalry with-
out any author's name. So little had Phillips studied Kirkman's
arrangement that he supposed the name W. Wager to apply to
all three plays. Hence his own entry. Just in the same way we
find him giving Tamberlaine to Thomas Newton because in
Kirkman's list it follows that translator's Thebais. Phillips'
entry of Wager is copied and expanded by Winstanley. Lang-
baine in Momus, 1688, merely reproduces Kirkman's entry of
The Longer thou Livest, but he reproduces it from the second
list, 1 67 1, in which 'Wager' is misprinted 'Wayer', and to
this he prefixed the name William. When, however, he
issued his larger work in 1691 he was more explicit, for under
u u
326 DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS
William Wayer, after noting * The more \sic\ thou livest ', * which
I never saw', he adds : ' There are two other Plays (whose Authors
are unknown) ascribed by Mr. Philips and Winstanley, to our
Author : viz. Tryal of Chivalry, and Tovt Tyler and his Wife :
tho' I believe they were never writ by him.' Gildon in 1698
had evidently seen The Longer thou Livest, presumably in Ash's
collection, but he nevertheless retained the erroneous heading
' William Wayer'. He made no mention of the other two plays.
Subsequent writers have nothing to add till we come to the
incorrigible Chetwood, who, assigning the play as usual to
*Mr. William Wayer', adds the date 1570. This is, of course,
a guess, but is an unusually happy one, being probably not more
than a year wrong. Chetwood's entry is reproduced by Baker
in 1764 and Reed in 1782. But the latter, having evidently seen
the play, of which he gives an elaborate and correct account, has
a duplicate entry under William Wager. He also, under Tom
Tyler and the Trial of Chivahy, follows Baker in repeating
Langbaine's denial that these plays were the work of William
Wayer — which, of course, no one had ever asserted. In the
revision of Baker and Reed by Stephen Jones in 18 12 Wager
safely established his claim to The Longer thou Livest, and has
not again been dispossessed. But Wayer still maintained a sort
of pseudo-existence. Not only is his authorship of Tom Tyler
and the Trial of Chivalry denied under the headings of those
plays, but it is in a manner asserted under that of his own name.
Halliwell appears to have been the first to realize that * Wayer'
was nothing but a misprint for ' Wager ', and to contradict what
Phillips really had asserted. Nevertheless, William Wayer found
a last refuge in the General Catalogue of Printed Books at the
British Museum as the conjectured author of Tom Tyler and the
Trial of Chivalry.
But this is only half the story, for there remains the Cruel
Debtor. This, as we have seen, was entered in 1565-6 as by an
unspecified Wager. Apparently the actual publication was
anonymous : at least both Archer and Kirkman record the play
without giving any author's name. So does Langbaine, quoting
DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS 327
Kirkman. Gildon merely adds that he had not seen the play.
Nor, doubtless, had Chetwood, but he nevertheless added the
date 1669 — a bad shot even for him. It is not a misprint, for
he classes the piece among post- Restoration plays. Baker only
adds that it was in quarto — another guess, but a pretty safe one.
By 1782, when Reed wrote, the entry in the Register had been
discovered, and one might have expected that one of the Wagers
might have got the credit of the play. But so persistent a ghost
was Wayer that Reed, in spite of the fact that he had discovered
that The Lo tiger thou Livest was by Wager, actually gave the
Cruel Debtor to Wayer. His entry of the play was copied
by Jones. Halliwell is again the first bibliographer to sub-
stitute Wager for Wayer, perhaps on the authority of Collier's
Extracts from the Registers, 1848-9. Still, however, the author
of the Cruel Debtor remained unchristened. This operation
was performed by W. C. Hazlitt in 1864, when in his Hand-
book he gave this play along with The Longer thou Livesi under
the heading ' William ' Wager. He has been followed by sub-
sequent authorities, including the British Museum Catalogue.
The Dictionary of National Biography, in a more than usually
incorrect notice under William Wager, includes the Cruel Debtor
with a proper warning that the personal name is not recorded,
but gives no indication that the expansion of W. to William is
equally void of authority.
The three points which emerge from the confusion are that
Wayer is a myth, that the name for which W. Wager's initial stands
is unknown, and that there is no external evidence to decide
which of the two known Wagers, if either, was the author of the
Cruel Debtor. The ascription of Tom Tyler and the Trial of
Chivalry to W. Wager are seen to rest on a mere misunder-
standing.
And now, having endeavoured to show what amount of reliance
should be placed on the statements of these bibliographical and
dramatical 'authorities', I will proceed to the enumeration of
their works.
The earliest information we obtain as to actually printed plays
u u 2
328 DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS
comes from advertisement lists appended by some publishers to
their books. These usually include lists of works already pub-
lished, of works in the press, and of works in contemplation.
They might be of greater value were they more frequently
dated, but we are often left to infer the date of the list from that
of the book to which it is appended, and we sometimes find the
same list appended to books of different dates. As it is, the
information supplied by the lists is not usually of very great
value. It is occasionally useful in tracing the trade connexion
of different stationers, and one or two general points of interest
emerge, for instance that there must have been an important
trade in ' remainders '. Now and again, too, the lists throw light
on obscure points of dramatic bibliography : thus we discover
that somewhere about 1657 Moseley was trying to palm off the
remainder of the second volume of the Jonson folio, after the
stock of ' 1631 ' plays had given out, as ' The third Volum' of
Jonson's Works, and was selling the 1641 folio of the Devil is an
Ass separately. It is also possible that two of Moseley's lists
may enable us to identify Carlell's lost play, the Spartan Ladies,
with the Deserving Favourite. The dramatic entries of certain
of these lists have been collected and printed in an appendix to
the List of Masques issued by the Bibliographical Society. But
there exist a good many others, some of greater importance.
A complete descriptive catalogue of the lists say from 1650 to
1670 might be useful, but it would be difficult to compile as
they are in many cases hard to find.
There are next those lists, some four in number, that owe
their existence to the early second-hand traffic in printed plays.
These too have been printed in an appendix to the Biblio-
graphical Society's List of Masques. The earliest is that
appended by Richard Rogers and William Ley to their edition
of the Careless Shepherdess in 1656. Nothing is said as to the
plays being for sale, but such seems probably to have been the
occasion of the list. It is a mere catalogue of titles, often very
inaccurate, and with authors' names only occasionally added. The
same year saw the appearance of the second list, that appended
DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS 329
by Edward Archer to his edition of the Old Law. This cata-
logue is somewhat ampHfied from its predecessor, authors being
usually indicated and letters added to show the nature of the
piece. The plays enumerated are defmitely said to be on sale at
Archer's shop in Little Britain or at Robert Pollard's in Thread-
needle Street. An advance both in accuracy and compre-
hensiveness was achieved by Francis Kirkman, the first of whose
lists was appended to some copies at least of Tom Tyler m 1661.
This was a joint undertaking, and the list of booksellers at whose
shops the plays were to be obtained includes, besides Kirkman,
Nathaniel Brook, Thomas Johnson, and Henry Marsh. The
full responsibility for this list was, however, claimed by Kirk-
man in the interesting Advertisement which he added to his
second list, appended to his edition of Dancer's translation of
Corneille's Nicomede in 167 1. He gives the total number of
plays down to that date as 806 : this includes masques. Kirk-
man, who began collecting about 1650 and had * conversed with,
and enquired of those who had been collecting' for thirty years
before that, was in a position to have obtained a good deal of
traditional knowledge which is not open to us. From this point
of view his lists are a disappointment. It seems impossible
to show that any of his ascriptions, at least of plays belonging
to the first half of the seventeenth century or earlier, rest on
any good tradition, and many of them are open to very serious
criticism. On the whole it would seem that Kirkman's lists
give a good view of what was known or supposed about the
bibliography of the early drama in the third quarter of the
seventeenth century, but that they in no way deserve to be
regarded as actual historical authorities. Langbaine mentions
a reprint of Kirkman's later list in 1680, characterized by
the very blunders and misconceptions of which Phillips had been
guilty. It does not seem to have been known to any subse-
quent bibliographer, and I have been unable to find it.
Kirkman was something of a literary antiquary and seems to
have taken a real interest in collecting and recording the
remains of the earlier drama. But it must not be forgotten that
330 DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS
at least a considerable if not the main part of his object was to
keep his catalogue up to date and give information about the
latest novelties that were to be had at his shop. And this
motive plays a part in all subsequent lists down to the Bio-
graphia Dramatica of 1812. Different editors and compilers
may be differently interested in the archaeological and what one
might almost call the journalistic sides of their work, but in no
case is it fair to judge the compiler solely by the test of anti-
quarian accuracy which we are instinctively inclined to apply.
And there are a number of lists to which it would be manifestly
absurd to apply any such test at all. The editor's sole concern
has been to bring a previous list ' up to date ' by including the
latest productions. Sometimes he merely adds to a previous list
of the same nature, sometimes he works on a basis of the more
elaborate bibliographers. But for our purposes he is negligible.
It maybe well to mention such lists briefly in this place and then
to take no further notice of them. They are of no authority
for our purpose and should on no account be quoted.
The earliest seem to have been some lists published by
W. Mears at the Lamb without Temple-Bar. The first of these,
called ' A True and Exact Catalogue ', was ' continued down
to October, 171 3' and issued the same year. It is in quarto
and in arrangement and intention follows Kirkman's lists of the
previous century. A ' Continuation of the following [sic]
Catalogue of Plays to October, 171 5' is a single-leaf addition.
The introduction to Reed's Biographia Dramatica of 1782
mentions a list of Mears' in 1714, but of this I have found no
trace. The work was republished as ' A Compleat Catalogue
. . . Continued to this present year, 1726' in duodecimo form and
describing itself as ' The Second Edition '. As a matter of fact,
however, this is something of a fraud. There must have been
a 'First Edition' of this duodecimo in 1718, and this 'Second
Edition ' is nothing but a re-issue with a cancel title-page. The
work consists of two parts ; the first, a list digested under authors,
in which it will be noticed that there is no date later than 1718,
the second, a list of titles which actually preserves its original
DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS 331
heading ' A True and Exact Catalogue . . . Continu'd down to
June, 1718 '. At the end are four leaves of * Appendix' contain-
ing some later titles and evidently forming a subsequent addition.
A still more elementary publication is ' A True and Exact Cata-
logue . . . Continu'd down to April 1732 ', printed for W. Feales
at the Rowe's Head and appended to an edition of three of
Jonson's plays [Voipone, Alchemist, Epicoene). It is a mere
bookseller's list and does not even give authors' names. More
than half a century later, and of a far more elaborate and trust-
worthy nature, is ' Egerton's Theatrical Remembrancer ... to the
End of the Year 1787 ', published by T. and J. Egerton, White-
hall, 1788. It was not, however, an original work, being in sub-
stance a mere abbreviation of the Biographia Dramatica of
1 782. In 1 792 followed ' another volume, of similar size, entitled
A netv Theatrical Dictionary', which I have not seen, but as
Stephen Jones describes it as 'a very brief abridgment (executed
with little industry, and less taste) of the last edition of the '
Biographia Dramatica, I take it to be substantially the same as
the Remembrancer. Egerton's Remembrancer evidently became
a popular handlist, for in 1801 Messrs. Barker and Son published
at their Dramatic Repository, Great Russell Street, Covent
Garden, a ' Continuation ' containing copious addenda to the
former work and bringing it down from 1787 to 1801. The
work, which also contained a complete list of plays 'from the
Commencement', was edited by W. C. Oulton, and a re-issue
appeared, with a new title-page describing it as ' Barker's Com-
plete List of Plays' and an appendix bringing it down to 1803.
Lastly in 18 14 appeared, as published by J. Barker, 'The
Drama Recorded ; or. Barker's List of Plays ' digested under
titles with dates and authors appended. Some 7000 titles are
recorded. I now return to the more important bibliographers.
Two writers must first engage our attention who did not
confine their labours to dramatic authors, and consequently lie
rather off our main beat. The earlier of these was Edward
Phillips, a nephew of Milton's, who in 1675 published a compila-
tion called ' Theatrum Poetarum, or a compleat Collection of the
332 DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS
Poets, Especially the most Eminent of all Ages. The Antients
distinguish't from the Moderns in their several Alphabets '. The
authors are arranged according to the mediaeval fashion under
their personal, not their family names. The work has chiefly
attracted notice owing to a belief that Milton may himself have
been responsible for some of the criticisms contained in its pages.
This, however, is no concern of ours at present, for there is no
reason to suppose that any one aided Phillips in making the
remarkable attributions with which the work abounds. Many,
though very far from all, of these were adopted by William
Winstanley in his * Lives of the most Famous English Poets, or
the Honour of Parnassus' published in 1687. The chief
importance of both these writers lies in the fact that they are
the source of a certain number of statements in the more judicious
work of Langbaine. Of their value as authorities it is not easy
to speak confidently. Were some one to extract and tabulate all
their ascriptions that do not rest on obvious evidence, it might
be easier to come to some conclusion as to the sources from
which they drew their information, but the reader can hardly feel
much confidence in Phillips at least, when he finds him crediting
T. Newton with Tambtcriaine, Marston with * the Faith/til Sheap-
heard\ R. Baron with Dick Scorner and the Marriage of Wit
and Science, T. May with the Old Wives Tale and Orlando
Furioso, and John Heywood with the Pinner of Wakefield and
'Philotus Scotch', all of these attributions being traceable to the
misunderstanding as regards Kirkman's entries of which men-
tion has already been made.
We next come to a writer who is worthily regarded as the
father of English dramatic bibliography, Gerard Langbaine the
younger. Having, as he confesses, neglected the opportunity of
acquiring a classical education and feeling no inclination for any
serious career which London had to offer, he retired early to
Oxford and devoted himself to the reading of modern romances
and plays. He died in the summer of 1692 before he had com-
pleted his thirty-sixth year. His first work, generally known as
Mo7n7is Triumpha7is, was a catalogue of plays digested under
DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS 333
authors, with addition of letters indicating their nature and a note
of the size, but without dates. So far it did not differ materially
from previous lists. What lends it a distinction of Its own are
the abundant footnotes giving the sources of the plots, the result
of Langbaine's wide and varied reading. The original title of
the quarto runs : ' Momus Triumphans : or, the Plagiaries of the
English Stage ; Expos'd in a Catalogue of all the Comedies,
Tragi-Comedies, Masques, Tragedies, Opera's, Pastorals, Inter-
ludes, &c. both Ancient and Modern, that were ever yet Printed
in English. The Names of their Known and Supposed Authors.
Their several Volumes and Editions : With an Account of the
various Originals, as well English, French, and Italian, as Greek
and Latine ; from whence most of them have Stole their Plots.
By Gerard Langbaine Esq; Indice non opus est nostris, nee
vindice Libris : Stat contra dicitq; tibi tua Pagina, Fures. Mart.
London : Printed for Nicholas Cox, and are to be Sold by him
in Oxford. M DC LX XXVI 1 1.' According to the Dictionary
of National Biography there is a variant title-page giving as
publisher S. Holford of London. These issues are said to have
appeared in November 1687. In December the remainder of
the stock was issued with a wholly new title-page describing the
work as 'A New Catalogue of English Plays ' and an advertise-
ment stating that Langbaine was responsible neither for the
earlier title nor the uncorrected state of the preface. Of the
spurious issue five hundred copies are said to have been sold.
It is certainly the commoner of the two and the only one I have
been able to see. Encouraged by the success which attended
his venture in spite of its mishaps, which he attributed to * the
Malice and poor Designes of some of the Poets and their
Agents ', Langbaine set to work to compile his larger and better
known work which appeared in 1691, the year before his early
death. The title of this octavo runs : ' An Account of the English
Dramatick Poets. Or, Some Observations and Remarks on the
Lives and Writings, of all those that have Publish'd either
Comedies, Tragedies, Tragi-Comedies, Pastorals, Masques,
Interludes, Farces, or Opera's in the English Tongue. By
X X
334 DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS
Gerard Langbaine. Oxford, Printed by L.L. for George West,
and Henry Clements. An. Dom. 1691.' The work consists of
an alphabetical list of authors' names, under which the compiler
has collected whatever information he could discover as to the
life and writings of each. At the end is a list of ' Supposed
Authors ', that is, authors known by initials only, and of anony-
mous plays. As to his authorities, he mentions Phillips and
Winstanley in his Preface without acknowledging any particular
debt, though he not infrequently quotes them in the course of
the book, and specifically cites Fuller, Lloyd, and Wood as his
chief authorities apart from the communications of living persons.
His criticisms may not be of great consequence, though certainly
as good as those of some who have attacked him, but his
supreme merit as an historian is that he seldom if ever pretends
to knowledge that he does not possess. His frequent remark
that he had not seen some play which he mentions is a welcome
guarantee of honesty sadly lacking in some of his successors.
Langbaine's volume has gained a reputation even beyond what
is due to its intrinsic merits through being used as the repository
of notes by later bibliographers and critics. The most important
of these was William Oldys (1696-1761) who annotated two
separate copies. One of these is now in the British Museum
(C. 28. g. i). The other passed into the possession of Thomas
Coxeter (i 689-1 747), whose own collections, contained in a
copy of Jacob's Register, are said to have been used by
both Baker and Warton. Several private copies of Oldys*
notes are extant : that made by Malone is in the Bodleian
Library.
Before the end of the century there appeared an octavo volume
entitled ' The Lives and Characters of the Enolish Dramatick Poets
. . . First begun by Mr. Langbain, improv'd and continued down
to this Time, by a Careful Hand'. The head-title speaks of ' all the
Plays, Printed to the Year, 1698 ', and the volume, the original
title-page to which is undated, was issued before 6 September
of that year, as is proved by a manuscript note in a copy at
Trinity College, Cambridge. The following year the title-page
DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS 335
was altered by the insertion of the date 1699. This digest,
abridgement, and continuation of Langbaine, for it is nothing
more, is usually ascribed to Charles Gildon, who seems indeed
to have been the general editor. He, however, tells us in the
Preface that the work was not all by one hand, and it was
doubtless one of his friendly helpers who wrote the lengthy and
flattering, though not wholly uncritical, account of Gildon himself
which appears in the Appendix. The Preface also acknowledges
the editor's indebtedness to ' the ingenious Mr. Ash's admirable
Collection of English Plays ', which had enabled him to supply
deficiencies in his predecessor's work. It is indeed evident that
in a few cases Gildon had seen early plays which Langbaine had
not, as in the case of Wager's The Longer thou Lives t.
Just a score of years later appeared a more ambitious under-
taking, the first dramatic Biographia illustrated with portraits.
The title is ' The Poetical Register : or, the Lives and Characters
of the English Dramatick Poets. With an Account of their
Writings. London : Printed for E. Curll, in Fleetstreet.
Mdccxix.' There is a later issue bearing the date 1723.
The Dedication is signed G. J., initials which we learn from
the companion Register of non-dramatic writers to be those of
Giles Jacob. The work is based, as the Preface confesses, on
Langbaine. But the dependence is not very close, and the
matter appears to be taken sometimes direct and sometimes by
way of Gildon's revision. However, Jacob can hardly claim to
be an independent authority for the earlier period.
In 1747 was published ' Scanderbeg : or, Love and Liberty.
A Tragedy. Written by the late Thomas Whincop, Esq.' To
this was appended 'A Compleat List of all the English Dramatic
Poets, and of all the Plays ever printed in the English Language,
to the Present Year M,DCC,XLVII.' The list was nominally
edited by Whincop's widow Martha, Whincop having died in
1730, but it seem.s to have been partly written and probably
wholly revised by John Mottley, who inserted a long account of
himself The list contains small medallion portraits. For the
earlier period it appears to be chiefly based on Gildon, but con-
X X 2
336 DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS
tains some original information. It is the first list divided into
periods.
We next come to the exasperating Chetwood — William Rufus
Chetwood — prompter at Drury Lane and at Dublin, dramatist,
bookseller, and translator, who died in 1766. His work which
concerns us here is ' The British Theatre. Containing the Lives
of the English Dramatic Poets ; with an Account of all their
Plays ', originally published at Dublin in 1750 and re-issued with
a London title-page dated 1752. Whether this book is of any
value for contemporary matters I do not know, but for the earlier
period I am convinced it is the source of nothing but error.
The position held by Chetwood for nearly twenty years at Drury
Lane must have given him considerable opportunities for collect-
ing information, but there seems no evidence that he made any
systematic use of them, while his historical competence may be
gauged by the fact that he thought the fifteenth century began in
1 500. Only two considerations can be advanced in his excuse.
One is that at the time of writing he was in prison for debt, with
' nothing in view but the melancholy Prospect of ending the
Residue of Life within the Walls ', and it may be argued that if
he sought to relieve his indigence by what was little better than
a fraud, he was not treating society much worse than society had
treated him. The other is that the chronological arrangement
adopted necessitated assigning dates to undated productions
and that a warning is given in the preface that in some cases
' Necessity oblig'd us to have Recourse to Conjecture '. Still
there is a point at which guessing becomes almost disingenuous,
and there are other details, such as the expansion of titles, the
only object of which can have been to produce the impression of
having information which in point of fact the writer did not
possess. Extenuating circumstances may be admitted, but it is
impossible wholly to acquit Chetwood of deliberate deceit. It
should be observed that the preface speaks of Chetwood in the
third person, and it may perhaps be questioned how far he really
revised the work before publication, but no one seems ever to
have questioned his substantial responsibility. A very few
DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS 337
instances from the anonymous plays will show the wildness of
Chetwood's guesses, and it will also be noticed that he has added
dates of his own, not merely to those productions that were
published without any, but to some pieces of which he did not find
the actual date recorded by Langbaine and Jacob, even though
the original was dated. Thus we find : Lotidon Chajiteckeres,
1559, Bande Ruffe and Czffee, 1581, Arraignemente of Paris,
1598, Caesar his Revenge, 1604, 1644, Promius and Cassandra,
1633, The Nice Wanto7t, 1634, Doctor Dodipole, 1671. The
bibliography of Shakespeare is a work of abundant fancy and
some humour.
Isaac Reed mentions 'The Theatrical Records, i2mo. 1756,
and The Playhouse Pocket Companion, 1 2 mo. 1 779' as being 'both
built on the same foundation', namely, Chetwood's British
Theatre. The former of them I have been unable to discover,
but conjecture that it may be the same as the ' List of Dramatic
Authors and their Works ' appended to the fourth edition of ' An
Apology for the life of Colley Cibber' which appeared in two
small volumes in 1756. This list consists simply of a reprint
of Chetwood's with certain additions and is equally worthless.
* The Playhouse Pocket-Companion, or Theatrical Vade-Mecum '
is a less direct reprint, all biographical notes being omitted and
the whole list of authors* names (each with a bare list of works)
being digested alphabetically. The fanciful dates, however,
amply betray the source from which the compilation has been
made.
Passing over D. E. Baker for the moment, I must record
a work of exceptional and original merit which has been singu-
larly neglected by subsequent bibliographers, no doubt owing to
its comparative inaccessibility. This is Edward Capell's ' Notitia
Dramatica ; or, Tables of Ancient Playes, (from their Beginning,
to the Restoration of Charles the second) so many as have been
printed, with their several Editions : faithfully compiled and
digested in quite new Method, by E. C. With a Preface.' For this
publication the British Museum Catalogue gives the conjectural
date 1774. It had indeed been written not later than January
338 DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS
1 771, but it formed part of the ' School of Shakespeare' which
itself constituted the third volume of Capell's ' Notes and Various
Readings'. Of this a portion was actually issued with an
Advertisement dated 20 Dec. 1774, but this was recalled, and
the whole work was not published till 1779 to 1783, being com-
pleted after Capell's death which occurred in 1781. The Notitia
is an entirely original work ; the first and almost the last of
dramatic catalogues to possess strict bibliographical merit. It
consists first of an alphabetical list of plays giving the authors,
and not only the date, but the printer and publisher of every
edition known to the compiler, with references to collected
editions ; next a list of these collected editions, alphabetically
under authors or, in the few anonymous cases, titles ; then an
alphabetical list of authors with the plays assigned to each,
followed by a table of joint authorship ; and lastly a (rather
eccentric) chronological list of authors and anonymous titles.
Langbaine is used as an authority for authorship, and so too are
the early catalogues, the information derived from the latter
being, however, typographically distinguished.
There remain to be mentioned three important works : ' The
Companion to the Play-House : or, An Historical Account of
all the Dramatic Writers (and their Works) that have appeared
in Great Britain and Ireland, from the Commencement of our
Theatrical Exhibitions, down to the Present Year 1 764 ' in two
volumes ascribed to David Erskine Baker, a grandson of Defoe,
(though the dedication toGarrick is subscribed ^****^********j .
' Biographia Dramatica, or, A Companion to the Playhouse . . .
By David Erskine Baker, Esq. A new Edition : Carefully
corrected; greatly enlarged; and continued from 1764 to 1782'
in two volumes by Isaac Reed ; and the same * brought down
to the End of November 181 1, with very considerable Additions
and Improvements throughout, by Stephen Jones ', three volumes
in four published in 181 2. These agree in being divided into
two parts, one biographical under an alphabetical list of authors
including a list of the works of each, the other bibliographical
giving details concerning individual plays under an alpha-
DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS 339
betical list of titles. Baker's original publication is a diligent
and intelligent compilation from various sources and a work
of considerable learning and value. It was however written at
a time when historical criticism was only just beginning to be
applied to the English drama and it necessarily soon became out
of date. Its defects were well supplied by Reed, the modesty of
whose Advertisement is proportionate to the thoroughness of his
work, and who perhaps has done more than any other man to
reduce dramatic bibliography to order. Nevertheless it must be
confessed that both Baker and Reed allowed many obvious
errors to stand uncorrected, and were not always as cautious in
accepting the statements of their predecessors as experience
might have suggested, Stephen Jones had a great opportunity,
and he undoubtedly produced a work which was not only
a considerable advance on those that had gone before, but one
which in many respects remains of value to-day, just one
hundred years after it was written. Nevertheless, if the thrash-
ing he received in the pages of the Quarterly Review was
excessive, it is idle to pretend that it was unmerited, and many
venerable absurdities appear in his entries, which are inherited
from Chetwood and even from Phillips, and should have been
eliminated long before.
Of subsequent work, such as it is, I do not propose to treat.
Halliwell's Dictionary of Old English Plays, i860, and W. C.
Hazlitt's Manual for the Collector and Amateur of Old English
Plays, 1892, both stop at the year 1700, and confine themselves
to the correction or otherwise of the bibliographical entries of
the Biographia Dramatica. Both are compilations of the most
perfunctory kind by writers who had the whole or at least
a large part of the apparatus of modern bibliographical research
at their disposal. Of entirely different scope and design are
the Lists of English Plays and Masques to 1640 issued by the
Bibliographical Society in 1900-2, whose chief merit lies in the
fact that they follow in the main the lines laid down in Capell's
Notitia Dramatica.
For convenience of reference I append a list of the main
340
DRAMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHERS
catalogues mentioned in chronological order under the names by
which they are most conveniently known.
1656 Rogers and Ley.
1656 Archer.
1660 Kirkman, I.
1670 Kirkman, II.
1675 Phillips.
1687 Winstanley.
1688 Momus (Langbaine).
1 69 1 Langbaine (Account).
1698 Gildon,
1 719 Jacob.
1747 Whincop.
1750 Chetwood.
1756 Gibber.
1764 Baker.
1782 Reed.
1783 Capell.
181 2 Jones.
W. W. Greg.
A JOTTING BY JOHN AUBREY
John Aubrey began to collect biographical material for
Anthony Wood's Atfienae Oxonienses about February 1680.
The gossiping task exactly suited him — ' I doe it playingly,'
he writes — and by June he had compiled and sent to Wood
a manuscript entitled * ^Zx^^^^cryLara, Brief Lives, part i ', to
which he afterwards made additions, and which is now Bod-
leian Aubrey MS. 6. Part ii probably followed after no
long interval. This part was mutilated by Wood, much to
Aubrey's annoyance, and the fragments, collected and arranged
in 1792 by Edmund Malone, form Aubrey MS. 7. Aubrey's
Part iii, entitled ' Auctarium vitarum a A coUectarum ', has the
date of 168 1 at the beginning and was in Wood's hands by
September of that year. It now constitutes the bulk of the first
68 folios of Aiibrey MS. 8, but with it are bound up certain
loose papers of which one (f. 45) is the leaf here facsimiled.
This is covered, both on the recto and on the verso, with rough
notes. The recto is wholly devoted to John Ogilby, the dancing-
master. The verso^ the top of which corresponds to the bottom
of the recto, also contains notes about Ogilby, interspersed with
others under the headings 'Jo: Fletcher', 'W. Shakespeare',
* B. Jonson '. The confused arrangement can hardly be made
intelligible without the facsimile. Lines 1-4 concern Fletcher ;
lines 5-8 Ogilby; lines 12-15 Shakespeare; lines 16-22 Jonson,
with the exception of line 19 which, though in the midst of the
Jonson section, refers to Ogilby. There remain lines 9-1 1, which
are inserted without a heading of their own between the first
Ogilby note and the Shakespeare heading, and are apparently
marked off by a short diagonal line passing through the initial
of Shakespeare's name. Lines 16-22, both the Jonson part and
Yy
342 A JOTTING BY JOHN AUBREY
the Ogilby part (with the exception of five words added to the
latter with a different pen), have been originally written in
pencil and inked over afterwards. At least two, possibly
three, pens have been used for the various notes. The whole
of the page has been cancelled with rough criss-cross lines.
These seem distinct both from the short line through Shake-
speare's name and from two horizontal lines marking off the first
Ogilby note from what precedes and follows it. The second
Ogilby note has been separately cancelled in a different fashion.
A hand later than Aubrey's, probably that of his editor Philip
Bliss, has added a heading and two words to the first Ogilby
note. I now give, as closely as type permits, the lines (9-16)
which immediately precede and follow the Shakespeare heading.
* the more to be admired q. he was not a company keeper
lived in Shoreditch, would not be debauched, & if invited to
writ ; he was in paine.
)A/. Shakespeare.
Lacy
(^. M' Beeston who knows most of him fr M"" ;
he lives in Shore-ditch, neer Nort at Hoglane
within 6 dores fr Norton-folgate.
(g. etiam for B. Jonson.'
Mr. Andrew Clark prints this entry in Aubrey s Brief Lives
(1898), i. 97, interpreting Aubrey's 'q' and '^' in each case
as ' quaere '. I think it is obvious that, although this is right
as regards the fifth and eighth lines, the abbreviation in the first
line stands for 'quod' or 'quia'. He also, for 'writ', prints
' court ' ; I have to thank Mr. F. Madan for pointing out this
error to me, and to regret that I have been the means, through
an Encyclopaedia Britannica article, of giving further currency
to the inaccurate version of the note. Finally, Mr. Clark
raises a serious question of interpretation, for he prints the
first three lines as part of a * Brief Life ', not of Shakespeare
at all, but of the actor William Beeston. Presumably this
represents his matured view of Aubrey's intention, for in the
A
%^^-y/^^^ '-Z -^^^ ^^^^>/:■^.^../Z,.i.^-
^^,
C^ ,/^^^-i tJ^**^^ ^<-r^J?^ tf^/<^ U/f^'U*^^^-ti^^ ♦^^^.c^i**^ <ru^^> '
V
Bodleian Aubrey MS. 8, fol. 4.5
A JOTTING BY JOHN AUBREY 343
paper in the English Historical Review, xi. 335, in which he first
called attention to the Aubrey jottings overlooked by Bhss, he
expressed himself as doubtful whether the lines referred to Shake-
speare, to Beeston, or to John Ogilby. As far as I am aware,
the point has received little attention from Shakespeare's
biographers, although the rarity of seventeenth-century allusions
to his personality makes it of real importance, and, as I will show,
if the retiring character and decent life described are really his,
the description may quite conceivably even be at first hand.
To me it seems clear that either the words must be intended to
be attached to the Shakespeare heading, and if so, must refer
to Shakespeare himself, or they must be a continuation of the
Fletcher note in lines 1-4. The pen used is apparently the
same as that of the Shakespeare note (though the ink of the
original seems to me to have dried rather differently), possibly
the same as that of the Fletcher note, but clearly different from
that of the Ogilby note. Nor do I see how the references
can be to Beeston ; for in fact Aubrey never set himself to
write a life of Beeston at all, and the ' Brief Life ' printed
under Beeston's name by Mr. Clark is merely an arbitrary
collection of passages in Aubrey's papers in which Beeston is
mentioned as a source of information upon other men. As
between Shakespeare and Fletcher, the problem seems to me
extraordinarily difficult, possibly insoluble. Sir G. F. Warner,
who has kindly allowed me to submit the facsimile to him,
inclines to Shakespeare ; Mr. Madan to Fletcher. Even if one
could satisfactorily determine the order in which the various
notes were made on the page, it would not help much ; for the
encroachment of the disputed lines on the Shakespeare heading
suggests that they in any case were the last written. The
similarity of penmanship is rather in favour of Shakespeare. So
is the fact that elsewhere Aubrey assigns Fletcher's abode, not
to Shoreditch, but to Southwark, at a period before Beaumont's
death in 16 16 as well as at his own death in 1625 {Brief Lives,
i. 96). Since the leaf is only one of rough jottings, one would
expect to find it used as material elsewhere in Aubrey's manu-
Y y 2
344 A JOTTING BY JOHN AUBREY
scripts. And in fact there exists a fair copy of the Fletcher and
Jonson notes, written out on a small slip attached to f. 54 of
Aubrey s MS, 8, and duly indexed on f. 5 as part of the
Auctarium, And this does not contain the disputed lines. Nor
are these copied elsewhere. There is no reference to Shake-
speare in the Auctarium or its index. And the note is not used
in the life of Shakespeare which occupies f. 109 of Atibrey MS. 6
(Clark, Brief Lives, ii. 225), although the statement in the last
two lines of this that Shakespeare had been a schoolmaster in
the country is indicated in the margin as having been derived
* from M*" . . . Beeston ', and the life must therefore, as is the
case with others in Aubrey MS. 6, have been worked upon by
Aubrey, after he first sent part i of the Brief Lives to Wood in
June 1680. It does not seem probable that he knew Beeston
until 1 68 1. On September i of that year he wrote to Wood
{Wood MS. F. 39, f. 357), * Did I tell you that I have mett
with old M'^ . . . . who knew all the old English poets,
whose lives I am taking from him : his father was master of the
. . . playhouse.' A year later he records 'Old M' Beeston,
whom M"". Dreyden calles the chronicle of the stage died at his
house in Bishopsgate street without, about Bartholomew-tyde,
1682. M' Shipey in Somerset-house hath his papers.' I take
it that it was the memorandum now under consideration that
originally sent Aubrey to Beeston. It would seem that in the
summer of 168 1 he was compiling material for a life of John
Ogilby, a friend of his own, who had died in 1675. Noting this
date on Aubrey MS. 8, f. 8, he adds ' quaere M' Lacy'. John
Lacy, a famous actor of the Restoration, had come to London in
1 63 1 and had been apprenticed to Ogilby, who was then in prac-
tice as a dancing-master. Aubrey called upon Lacy, and the
conversation was not confined to Ogilby, but extended to those
great memories of the pre-Restoration stage, Shakespeare, Ben
Jonson, and John Fletcher. The leaf forming Atibrey MS. 8,
f. 45, upon the recto of which Lacy is specifically quoted once,
and upon the verso twice, is the register of this conversation.
The most important thing Lacy had told Aubrey was that
A JOTTING BY JOHN AUBREY 345
he could learn more about Shakespeare and Jonson from
Beeston, and to Beeston he resolved to go. It was thus he came
to learn that Spenser ' was a little man, wore short haire, little
band and little cuffs' {Aubrey MS. 8, f. 41) and that Sir John
Suckling ' invented the game of cribbidge ' (Aubrey MS. 8,
f. 10^); very likely the Auctarium is still further indebted to
Beeston's reminiscences. But was it also from Beeston that
Aubrey got the character of Shakespeare, if it is Shakespeare's,
which he wedged in above the heading on the facsimiled leaf ?
Or was that part of Lacy's own communication, overlooked when
Aubrey first made his notes of that communication, and inserted
as an afterthought ? The uniformity of the writing with what
comes below the heading rather suggests the second hypothesis.
In any case, it is probable that Beeston was the original source
of the information. The words * fr[om] M' Lacy ' in the second
part of the note only indicate that it was Lacy who put Aubrey
on the track of Beeston, and not, as they grammatically might,
that Beeston's knowledge of Shakespeare was derived from Lacy.
Shakespeare had already been dead fifteen years when Lacy first
came to London ; Beeston's memory, especially if eked out by
his father's, would go a great deal further back. The Beestons
were an old theatrical family. ' Beeston and his felowes ' are
recorded as acting at Barnstaple in 1 560-1 (Murray, English
Dramatic Companies, ii. 198). One of the clan, I take it, was
the dedicatee of Nash's Strange Newes of the Intercepting of
Certain Letters (1592), whom he addresses as 'Maister Apis
lapis ' and * Gentle M. William '. Christopher Beeston was one
of the Chamberlain's men in 1598. Thereafter he joined the
Earl of Worcester's men, who became Queen Anne's men, and
had as fellow in 1604 and 1609 a Robert Beeston, of whom no
more is heard. Christopher, who bore the alias of Hutcheson,
remained with the Queen's men until 16 19. He seems to have
built or acquired the Cockpit, and to have successively housed
there Queen Anne's men (161 7-19), Prince Charles's men (1619-
22), Lady Elizabeth's men (1622-5), Queen Henrietta's men
(1625-37), and 'the King's and Queen's young company', also
346 A JOTTING BY JOHN AUBREY
known as * Beeston's boys' (1637). In May 1637 he was sum-
moned before the Privy Council for playing in a time of inhi-
bition, and with him was William Beeston, who thus makes
his first appearance in stage annals (cf. p. 392 of these Collections).
The company was revived at the Cockpit in the autumn, and
when Christopher Beeston died about 1639, the direction of it
passed first to Sir William Davenant, and then to William
Beeston, who is described in August of that year as * William
Bieston, gent, governor of the kings and queenes young company
of players' {Variorum of 182 1, iii. 159). He appears also in
a Household list of 1641 {Lord Chamberlains Records, 3, i) as
* Governor of y^ Cockpitt Players'. In 1640 he had been
committed to the Marshalsea for playing without license
during a period of inhibition. After Christopher Beeston's
death the lease of the Cockpit was held by Mrs. Elizabeth
Beeston, alias Hutcheson {Variorum, of 182 1, iii. 241, 242). She
must have been Christopher's second wife; a wife named Jane,
who was a recusant, is mentioned in 16 1 5-1 7 ; and William, who
himself appears in a list of suspected recusants in 1680, being
then of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, was probably her son {Middle-
sex County Records, ii. 107, 1 10, 1 14, 120, 128 ; iv. 145). Aubrey's
description of William Beeston, whose name had slipped his
memory, to Wood confirms Malone's conjecture that he was the
son of Christopher, and presumably the playhouse, the name of
which also slipped Aubrey's memory, was the Cockpit William
Beeston's father, then, was Shakespeare's fellow in the Chamber-
lain's company about 1598, and must have known him intimately.
William himself may quite well have had a boyhood's memory
of the poet. I may add that a testimony to his knowledge of
stage affairs, earlier than that of Aubrey, is borne by Francis
Kirkman, who in dedicating to him The Loves and Adventures
of Clerio and Logia (1652) writes, ' Divers times (in my hearing)
to the admiration of the whole Company, you have most
judiciously discoursed of Poesie . . . who are the happiest
interpreter and judg of our English Stage-Playes the Nation
ever produced ; which the Poets and Actors of these times
f^^yry
MXM /,,
L
t'
r,
\/.
?u
/
Bodleian Aubrey MS. 8, fol. 45'
A JOTTING BY JOHN AUBREY 347
cannot (without ingratitude) deny : for I have heard the chief,
and most ingenious of them, acknowledg their Fame & Profits
essentially sprung from your instructions, judgment and fancy.'
Kirkman also mentions Beeston's son George, who is stated by
Mr. Sidney Lee {^Nineteenth Century, Feb. 1902) to have con-
tinued the histrionic tradition of his family. I do not know
whether it is the father or the son who appears amongst the
King's company at Drury Lane soon after the Restoration,
taking amongst other parts that of Roderigo in Othello on
February 6, 1669. It must clearly have been the son who
took Roderigo in the later revival of 1687 (Downes, Roscius
Anglicantis, ed. Knight, xxxiv, 2, 7, 10; Pepys, Diary, ed.
Wheatley, viii. 105, 217).
E. K. C.
September 24, 1 9 1 1 ,
TWO EARLY PLAYER-LISTS
I. The Earl of Leicester's Men, 1572
The letter here printed is preserved amongst the manu-
scripts of the Marquis of Bath at Longleat, Wilts, and is
calendared as F. 10 (213) in the report of the Historical
Manuscripts Commission (iii. 200) upon that collection. It was
published by Canon J. E. Jackson in Notes and Queries for
May 4, 1867 {^ird Series, xi. 350), but failed to attract the atten-
tion of historians of the stage. The Society owes the present
transcript to the kindness of the Marquis of Bath and of his
librarian, Mr. T. E. Alexander.
' To the right honorable Earle of Lecester, their good
lord and master.'
* Maye yt please your honour to understande that foras-
muche as there is a certayne Procalmacion out for the revivinge
of a Statute as touchinge retayners, as your Lordshippe knoweth
better than we can enforme you thereof: We therfore,your humble
Servaunts and daylye Oratours your players, for avoydinge all
inconvenients that maye growe by reason of the saide Statute, are
bold to trouble your Lordshippe with this our Suite, humblie
desiringe your honor that (as you have bene alwayes our good
Lord and Master) you will now vouchsaffe to reteyne us at this
present as your houshold Servaunts and daylie wayters, not that
we meane to crave any further stipend or benefite at your Lord-
shippes handes but our Lyveries as we have had, and also your
TWO EARLY PLAYER-LISTS 349
honors License to certifye that we are your houshold Servaunts
when we shall have occasion to travayle amongst our frendes as
we do usuallye once a yere, and as other noble-mens Players do
and have done in tyme past, Wherebie we maye enjoye our
facultie in your Lordshippes name as we have done hertofore.
Thus beyinge bound and readye to be alwayes at your Lord-
shippes comandmente we committ your honor to the tuition of
the Almightie.
Long may your Lordshippe live in peace,
A pere of noblest peres:
In helth welth and prosperitie
Redoubling Nestor's yeres.
Your Lordshippes Servaunts most bounden
lames Burbage.
lohn Perkinne.
\Docketed by a Secretary] lohn Lanham.
' Yr L. players.' Willm Johnson.
Roberte Wilson.
Thomas Clarke.'
The letter is not dated, but the date can be readily supplied.
The proclamation against retainers, out of which it arose, was
issued on January 3, 1572, and notified the intention of the
government to enforce from the coming February 20 certain
fifteenth century statutes against the granting of liveries by
lords to other than their actual servants, which, since the firm
establishment of the royal power which they were originally
meant to safeguard, had fallen into disuse. As the bearing of
these laws upon the status of the companies of players travelling
under the protection of noblemen had hitherto escaped notice,
the text of the proclamation follows, from the collection of
original sheets made by Humphrey Dyson in 161 8, under the
title of A Booke containing all such Proclamations, as were
published during the Raigne of the late Queene Elizabeth, of
which a copy, with the press-mark G. 6463, is in the British
Museum.
z z
350 TWO EARLY PLAYER-LISTS
By the Queene.
* A proclamation for thexecution of the lawes made agaynst
vnlawful reteynors, &c.
The Queenes Maiestie understandyng aswel by her owne
careful obseruation of her policie, as by report of suche as haue
thadministration of Justice in her Realme, howe vniuersally the
vnlefull reteynyng of multitude of vnordinary seruauntes by
liuerles, badges, and other signes and tokens, contrary to the good
and auncient statutes and lawes of this Realme, doth manifestly
withdrawe from her Maiesties crowne, the due seruices of her
officers, tenauntes, and subiectes, and doth also playnely hynder
iustice, and disorder the good policie of the Realme, by maynte-
naunce of vnleful suites and titles, and by stirring vp & nourish-
ing of factions, riots, and vnleful assemblies, the mothers of
rebellion, besydes suche other great inconueniences that already
are seene, and moe lykely dayly to folowe, yf speedie remedie be
not prouided, for this purpose is moued with a most earnest
intention, to procure a speedie reformation thereof. And because
her Maiesties intent is, rather to haue generally her lawes duely
obserued, and the defaultes quietly reformed, then the great
forfeytures to be leuied, whiche are due to her Maiestie, and
myght greatly by iustice enriche her treasure, specially in the
streight execution of the sayde lawes, aswel by the persons that
haue and do vnlefully reteyne others, as also by them that are so
vnlefully reteyned agaynst the lawes : Therefore her Maiestie of
her special grace, doth by this her proclamation notifie to al
persons, of what estate or degree soeuer the same be, who shal
after the .xx. day of Februarie next folowyng, vnlefully reteyne,
or be reteyned, in any seruice by liuerie, badges, or other token,
contrary to the statutes and lawes df this Realme therefore
prouided, the same shal not haue any manner of fauour or grace
of her Maiestie, for any suche offence committed agaynst the
sayde lawes, before nor after the same .xx. day. And contrary-
wyse, whosoeuer shal vpon this admonition forbeare to offende
herein, from and after the sayde .xx. day of Februarie next, shal
TWO EARLY PLAYER-LISTS 351
not be in any wyse impeached at her Maiesties suite, nor shal
forfeite any thing to her Maiestie for the same : And so her
Maiesties pleasure is, that al her iustices and officers, before
whome any suite is, or shalbe commenced for any offence com-
mitted, or to be committed, before the sayde .xx. of Februarie,
to haue regarde to this her Maiesties gratious dispensation.
And for the better execution of the lawes and statutes remaynyng
in force agaynst any suche vnleful reteynors, her Maiestie chargeth
al manner her iustices and officers, to whom the execution of the
same is prescribed, to cause inquisition or examination, accordyng
to the sayde lawes, to be made in al places of the Realme,
immediatly, or as soone as conuiently they may, after the sayde
.xx. day of Februarie : And that al iustices of assise, and gaole
deliueries, aswel in townes corporate, and Franchises, as in any
Counties, shal at theyr next sessions haue due regarde by good
examination and trial, that no person be impanelled in any iurie
before them, that is vnlefully reteyned, without due reformation
and punishing of the same, for the better example thereof, in
theyr open sessions. And further they shal cause a sufficient
newe iurie to be charged aparte at the same sessions, diligently
for that only purpose, to enquire of the poyntes and articles of
al the statutes beyng in force, and specially of the statute made
the thirde yeere of her Maiesties noble graundefather Kyng
Henry the seuenth, agaynst vnleful reteynors, and geue also
some order, that (as the trueth may be therein vnderstande) some
good euidence may be geuen to the sayde iurie in that behalfe.
And that al other thynges, by the care of the sayde iustices,
may be done both at theyr next sessions, and at al other theyr
sessions folowyng: Whereby the inconueniencesaboue mentioned,
may be the more speedily refourmed, and the lawes hereafter in
this behalfe better kept. And to the intent her Maiestie may be
the better satisfied in her earnest desyre, to see the effect of her
desyre in this behalfe, her Maiestie willeth, that her sayde
iustices of assise, shal after theyr next sessions, at some con-
uenient tyme, make report to her Maiestie, of theyr doynges,
and of theyr opinions, for the better execution hereof, as cause
z z 2
352 TWO EARLY PLAYER-LISTS
shal require. And further, her Malestie chargeth all manner of
persons, that haue any seruauntes vnlefully reteyned, by liueries,
badges, or by any other compact, who shal require to be dis-
charged, for any offence punishable, before the sayde .xx. day of
Februarie : that they shal before the sayde .xx. day, discharge
theyr sayde seruauntes so vnlefully reteined, of theyr seruices, in
respect of the daunger of the lawes : And therupon the sayd
seruants shal accept the said discharge, and shal ceasse to weare
the badges, or other tokens whereby they were accustomed to
be reteyned, vpon payne that yf the sayde seruauntes shal
continue to be reteyned vnlefully, in the sayde seruice, or in
wearyng of the same badges, or tokens, after the sayde .xx. of
Februarie, they shal not be any wyse forborne from punishment
for theyr defaultes committed agaynst the lawes before the sayde
.XX. of Februarie. And forasmuche as by the sayde statute
made in the thirde yeere of her Maiesties noble graunde-
father kyng Henry the seuenth, prouision is specially made
vpon weyghtie consyderations, by great penalties of forfeytures
agaynst sundrie officers, as Stewardes, Auditors, Receauers, and
Bayliffes of the Queenes Maiesties Honours, Manours, and
landes, and agaynst Constables, or kepers of her Maiesties
Castles, Wardens, maisters of games, Parkers, Kepers, or any
other officer of her Maiesties Forrestes, Chases, Parkes, or
Warrennes, for beyng them selues vnlefully reteyned, or for theyr
vnlefull reteynyng, or for sufferyng to be reteyned any manner
of person, dwellyng within theyr sayde offices or rules, without
enfourmyng her Maiestie thereof within fourtie dayes, and also
agaynst all her Maiesties Farmours, or tenauntes of any of her
landes, that are or shalbe vnlefully reteyned by any others, vpon
payne of forfeyture of theyr Farmes : Her Maiestie hath thought
good, specially and perticulerly, for better information, and to
auoyde ignoraunce, to geue warnyng hereof to al persons
hauyng any suche offices, and to al other beyng her Farmours
or tenauntes, whom the sayde statute may touche, that they
also do speedily refourme them selues in the offences therein
perticulerly specified, before the sayd .xx. of Februarie, vpon
TWO EARLY PLAYER-LISTS 353
paine that yf they shall not so doo, her Maiestie assureth theym,
that she wyl not in any wyse remit the sayde penalties and
forfeytures, whiche by execution of the sayde statutes, and other
her lawes, may duely and iustly grovve to her for the offences
that are or shalbe committed before the sayde .xx. day of
Februarie, agaynst the sayde lawes and statutes.
Yeuen at her highnesse pallace of Westminster, the thirde
day of lanuarie, 15 71, in the fourteenth yeere of her Maiesties
raigne.
God saue the Queene.
t^y Imprinted at London in Powles Churchyarde, by Richarde
lugge and lohn Cawood, Printers to the Queenes Maiestie.
Cum priuilegio Regiae Maiestatis.
The statute more particularly referred to in the proclama-
tion was 3 Hen. VII, c. 12 of 1587 (Record Office edition of
Statutes, ii. 522). This, which bore the title An Acte agayiist
retayning any of the Kyng^ tennant^, was for the purpose of
strengthening earlier statutes, and imposed penalties on unlawful
retaining * contrarie to eny ordynaunce or acte afore this tyme
made '. The most important of these earlier ordinances, for the
present purpose, was 8 Hen. VI, c. 4 of 1429 {R. O. Statutes^ ii.
240), which not only confirmed a provision of 7 Hen. IV, c. 14
in 1406 {R. O. Statutes, ii. 155), by enacting 'that no Knight,
nor other of less Estate should give any Livery of Cloths or Hat
to other than to his Menials, and his Officers and Men learned in
the one Law or the other ', but also gave a considerable extension
to the principle by a new provision ' that all those that shall
take any such Liveries of Cloths or of Hats of any Lord Spiritual
or Temporal, or of any great Lady in or of England, against the
Form of the said Statutes, they shall be likewise examined and
punished in Manner as they that take such Liveries of Knights
or other of less Estate '. A confirming Act earlier than that of
Henry VII was 8 Bdw. IV, c. 2 of 1468 {R. O. Statutes, ii. 426),
which imposed a penalty of lOOs. a month on those giving
354 TWO EARLY PLAYER-LISTS
or taking liveries unlawfully. The Elizabethan government
issued a second proclamation against retainers on April 19, 1583.
This is much in the terms of the proclamation of 1572, and cites
both 8 Edw. IV, c. 2, and 3 Hen. VII, c. 12.
IL Queen Elizabeth's Men, 1588
This certificate is printed from P. R. O. Lay Subsidies^ House-
hold, 69/97. My attention was called to it by a note of its
contents made by Joseph Hunter in British Museum Addi-
tional MS. 24497, f. 59. This is a note-book described by
Hunter as ' Shakespeare. Notes on his Life and Writings, made
after the publication of my New Illustrations, &c. 1846'. No
doubt Hunter came across the document while he was compiling
his inventory of the Earlier Lay Subsidy records (up to 1585)
for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Reports of the Deputy Keeper of
the Rolls. He would have saved me some trouble if he had
included an exact reference to it in his note.
Sir Frauncis Knolles knight Treasorer of the Queenes
Ma*'" moste honorable housholde S"" Thomas Henneage knight
vicechambelaine of her Ma'^ moste honorable Chambre and
Gregorie Lovell esquler Cofferer of the saide housholde Comis-
sioners for her Highnes moste honorable housholde and chamber,
named and appointed amongest others for the ratinge taxinge
assessynge levyinge and (gathe)ringe of the firste paymente of
the Subsedie graunted to her Ma*'^ of her lay Sublectj; by acta
of pliamente holden at Westm in the xxix*'' yeare of her highnes
moste noble Raigne Do certefye the right honorable the lorde
highe Threr of Englande,the Barons of her Highnes Exchequer
and all other Offycers to whom yt shall apptaine, That Richarde
Coxe and lohn Wyddox gent highe Collector's for the levyinge
and gatheringe of the saide fyrste payment within her Ma*^ saide
housholde and chamber belnge charged in their Estreaty with
theis psons and somes hereafter foUowinge, That ys to saye
TWO EARLY PLAYER-LISTS 355
Roberte Legh gentleman vsher xx.s. [Edwarde L Pgeant
at Armes xviij.s.] M*". Asheley clerke of the Councell being
chardged at xxv.ti. fee Ixvj.s. viij.d. Edwarde Boes keep of the
ex'
Doggy at xiiij ti. fee xxxvij.s iiij.d. havinge no such fees as they
ex'
saye, Alexander Fenex drumer xlviij.s. lohn Perkins Trompeter
ex'
Ixiiij.s. at pencion lohn Machell xxiiij.s. and Tvg (?) Barton
ex'
xxiiij.s. all fower being dead before the Seasment Roberte Tapley
ex'
of the Robes viij.s. iiij d. The Players, viz. Richarde Tarleton,
ex' ex' ex'
viij.s. iiij.d. lohn Laneham viij.s. iiij.d. William lohnson v.s.
ex' ex'
lohn Towne viij.s. iiij.d. lohn Adams viij.s. iiij.d. lohn Garlande
ex' ex' ex''
viij.s. iiij.d. lohn Dutton viij.s. iiij.d. lohn Singer viij.s. iiij.d.
ex'
Lyonell Cooke viij.s. iiij.d. and [Davy Duboys armor"" (?) xij.s.]
have not or at any tyme since the cominge of theastrete to
their handes have not had whiche they coulde come bye to
distraine any landes or tenementes, goodes or chattellj", wages
or fee within the lymltty of their collection to their knowledge.
In witnes wherof we the saide Comissioners to this our certifycat,
have sette our handes and seales the laste of lune in the xxx''*
yeare of the Raigne of our soveraigne Ladie Elizabeth, by the
grace of God Queene of Englande Fraunce and Ireland defendor
of the faythe &c.
I doe svbscrybe herevnto vppon M*"
Cofferers credytt & his Klerkes
F. Knollys. \waxfor seal] Gregor. Lovell
[seal] [seal]
ex^ p Coxe.
356 TWO EARLY PLAYER-LISTS
The words enclosed In square brackets in the above text are
scored through in the manuscript. I have added five conjectural
letters in angular brackets where a hole occurs. The interlineated
notes ' Ex"" ' are presumably the result of a check of the certificate
by Richard Coxe the collector. I may add that the list consider-
ably extends our knowledge of the composition of the Queen's
men, amongst whom John Towne, John Adams, John Garland,
and Lionel Cooke must now be reckoned. Adams was one of the
Earl of Sussex's men in 1576 (Modern Language Review^ ii. 5).
It also solves Mr. Greg's uncertainty, very proper on the evidence
before him, whether the Singer of the Queen's men was John
Singer, and disposes of his conjecture, which I venture to think
less proper on the evidence, that when Henslowe noted John
Towne as witness to a loan in connexion with the Queen's
men on May 8, 1593, he meant to note Thomas Towne
{Henslowe s Diary ^ ii. 310, 315). I may add that John Towne
is described as * one of her Maiesties plears ' in a Nottingham
debt-record of July 8, 1597 (W. H. Stevenson, Nottingham
Records, iv. 244).
E. K. Chambers.
January 16, 1910.
COMMISSIONS FOR THE CHAPEL
It was customary to arm the Master of the Children of the
Chapel with authority on behalf of the Crown to * take up ' or
impress singing boys for the royal service, and to require from
the subjects certain specified kinds of assistance in the exercise
of his functions. This authority, like the analogous authority
given from 1581 onwards to the Master of the Revels [Titdor
Revels, 62), was conveyed, at any rate from Elizabeth's reign
onwards, by a ' commission ' issued in the form of letters patent
under the great seal in accordance with the procedure explained
in vol. i, p. 260, of these Collections. Commissions by Elizabeth
to Richard Edwardes in 1562 and to William Hunnis in 1567
are in existence, and are printed by C. W. Wallace, The Children
of the Chapel at Blackfriars, 65. Nathaniel Giles succeeded
Hunnis as Master in 1597. The Privy Seal for his commission
is dated 3 July, and the patent itself is entered on the dorse of
the Patent Roll for 39 Eliz. (part 9, membrane 7), and dated
15 July 1597. The text, which in the main follows the terms of
the earlier patents to Edwardes and Hunnis, is also printed by
Wallace, Children of the Chapel, 6 1 . The authority lapsed with
the death of the sovereign, and therefore required renewal upon
the accession of James I. The two patents here given were
issued to Nathaniel Giles in September 1604 and November 1606
respectively. They differ from the Elizabethan model in many
points, upon which it is not here necessary to dwell. They also
differ from each other on one point of great interest for the
history of the stage. The patent of 1606 contains a proviso
forbidding the use of any of the Children of the Chapel in the
3 A
358 COMMISSIONS FOR THE CHAPEL
capacity of players of interludes. This had been a regular
practice during more than one period of Elizabeth's reign, under
Edwardes and Hunnis up to 1584 or thereabouts, and again
under Nathaniel Giles on some financial arrangement with
Henry Evans at the Blackfriars from 1600 to 1602. The abuse
of his commission by Giles in order to get suitable boys had
brought the partners into trouble with the Star Chamber. In
1604 the boy actors were reconstituted under a new patent as the
Children of the Revels to the Queen. The facts now brought to
light suggest that the commission continued to be used as a means
of recruiting the Revels company, in which Evans, if not Giles
himself, retained an interest, and that the prohibition introduced
in 1606, although professedly based on religious grounds, may
have been not altogether unconnected with the disgrace into which
the company was brought by their performance of John Day's
Isle of Gulls in February of that year (cf. Modern Language
Review, iv. 158). Collier, who described but did not print the
patent of 1604, and was apparently ignorant of that of 1606,
found the prohibition in a fresh commission issued to Giles in
1626, upon the accession of Charles I, and assumed that it was
then introduced from the first time ' by the strong influence of
the clergy' {H. E. D. P., ed. 1879, i. 348, 446). Professor
C. W. Wallace, in a paper on Shakspere and the Blackfriars
(Cenhtry Magazine, Sept. 19 10), ascribes it to James I, but dates
it * immediately upon coming to the throne ', possibly by some
confusion with the earlier Jacobean commission of 1604. It
is rather curious to observe that even after 1606 the Revels
company continued to be described from time to time as the
Children of the Chapel. They are so described in the Stationers'
Register entry of Middleton's Your Five Galla^its on 22 March
1608, and in so official a document as the accounts of the
Treasurer of the Chamber for 161 2-1 3.
E. K. C.
April 23, 191 1.
COMMISSIONS FOR THE CHAPEL 359
[1604, September 13. Signet Bill for Commission to Nathaniel Giles, Master
of the Children of the Chapel, from P, R. O. Exchequer Treasury of Receipt^
Warrants for Privy Seal, September, 2 James I, No. 40.]
Right trustie and right welbeloved Councellor we greet you
well and will and comaund you that vnder our privy Seale being
for the tyme in yo"^ Custody you cause our Ires to be directed to
our Chauncello'" of England comaunding him that vnder o"^ great
Seale of England he cause our Ires to be made forth patent^ in
forme following. lames by the grace of god king of England
Scotland ffraunce and Irland Defender of the faith &c. To
all and singuler Deanes Archdeacons lustices of peace Maio*"^
Shiriffj Bailiffj' Constables and all other our officers and ministers
aswell Ecctiastall as temporall greeting, ffor that it is meet
that our Chappell Royall should be furnished w^'' well singing
Children from tyme to tyme We have authorised and by these
p'ntjj' for vs our heires and successors do authorise our wel-
beloved servant Nathanaell Giles Master of our Children of our
said Chappell or his Deputie being by his bill subscribed and
sealed so authorised. And having this o*" present comission
w"* him to take such and so many Children as he or his Deputie
shall think meet in all Cathedrall Collegiat parish Churches
Chappells and schooles where publique teaching of musick is
vsed as well w'^'in liberties as w^^'out w^^'in our realmes and
dominions any Comission restraint or inhibition to the contrary
not w^'^stan ding. And also at all tymes necessary horses boates
barges Cartes Carres and waggons for the conveyance of our said
servant his deputie or Children aforesaid from place to place w*''
all manner of necessaries apperteyning to him by land or by
water at such reasonable prises as by the discrecon of any our
said officers shalbe thought sufficient, And also to take vp
sufficient lodging for him and the said Children, when they for
^ A 2
36o COMMISSIONS FOR THE CHAPEL
our service shall remoue to any place or places, the Charges and
expences for fetching of any such Child or Children by our said
servant or his Deputie to be paied by the Treasurer of our
Chamber for the tyme being of such money of ours as shall
come to his handes from tyme to tyme : The same being first
rated and allowed by the Lord Chamberlain of our howshold
vnder his hand, and the same togither w*'' the sight of this our
Corhission shalbe to the Trer of our Chamber his sufficient dis-
charge. Prouided also that if our said servant or his Deputie
bearer's hereof cannot forthw*** remove the said Child or Childen
[sic], when by vertue of this our Corhission he hath taken him or
them that then the said Child or Children shall remayne there
vntill such tyme as our said servant Nathanaell Giles shall send
for him or them. Wherefore we will and Comaund you and
every of you to whome this our Corhission shall come to be
helping aiding and assisting the bearer hereof to the vttermost of
yo*" power. And also to take sufficient bondes for the forth-
coming of any Child or Children that shalbe detayned conveyed
or w'^'held from our said servant or his deputie according to
the discrecon and authoritie w'^*' is in you. And moreover
at the humble peticon and request of our welbeloved servant
lames Montague Doctor in Divinitie and Deane of our said
Chappell Royall And of the said Nathanaell Giles Master of the
Children of our said Chapell of our princly care for the advanc-
ment helpe and furtherance of such Children as shalbe taken to
serve in our said Chappell as aforesaid of our especiall grace
certain knowledg and meere motion we have willed ordayned
constituted graunted and declared And by these pntj for
vs our heires and successors do will ordayne constitute graunt
and declare that when and as often as any of the Children
of our said Chappell having served in the same by the space of
three yeres or more shall by reason of the Chaung of his or their
voice or voices become insufficient or vnmeet for the service of
vs our heires or successors in the same Chappell that then and
from tyme to tyme at all tymes after it shall and may be lawfull
vnto the Master of the Children of our said Chappell for the
COMMISSIONS FOR THE CHAPEL 361
tyme being by and w*'' the direction and allowance of the Deane
of our said Chappell for the tyme being and in the vacancie of
a Deane of our said Chappell, then by and w*^ the direction and
allowance of two or more of our privy Councell to send or convey
any such Child or Children so becoming insufficient or vnmeet
for the service of vs our heires and successors in the same
Chappell to any Colledg Hall or schoole being of the foundacacon
[sic] of vs or of any our progenitors Kingj or Queenes of this our
realme of England or whereof we, or any of our progenitors are
or have ben called and are accompted founders w'^in any the
vniversicies of Oxford or Cambridg or in any other place or
schoole whatsoever w'^'in this our Realme of England to be
receaved admitted and placed in any of them in the rome and
place of a scholer of the foundacon of any such Colledg hall
or schoole and to give pay and allowance vnto the said Child or
Children and every of them to be sent as aforesaid all such wages
lodging diet instruction teaching and other allowances whatso-
ever as are paied given or allowed to other scholers in the same
Colledges halls or schooles by the foundacons statutj or orders
of the same any law statute Act or ordinance of or in the said
Colledges halls or schooles or any of them to the contrary
hereof notw'^standing Prouided alwayes that there be not
at any tyme hereafter by force of this our ordinacon graunt
Constitucon and declaracon aboue one Child sent or brought
to any one Colledg hall or schoole w*''in the space of three
yeres so to be placed admitted and allowed as aforesaid. And
we doe also of our speciall grace certain knowledg and meere
mocon will and ordayne declare and comaund by theise
pnty vnto all and singuler the Deanes Provostj Wardens
Masters and governers of all and singuler the said Colledges
halls or Schooles by what name or names soeuer they be called
or knowne that they doe receave admitt and place all such Child
or Children as shalbe sent or brought vnto them by and w**"
the direction and allowance as aforesaid. In witnes &.c. And
these o' Ires shalbe yo*" sufficient warrant and discharg in this
behalf Given vnder our Signet at our Castle of Windsor the
362 COMMISSIONS FOR THE CHAPEL
seaventhteenth [sic] day of September in the second yere of our
raigne of England ffraunce and I Hand and of Scotland the eight
and thirtith.
Ex p Lake
[Endorsed"] to our right trustie and right welbeloved Councello''
the Lord Cecyll Viscount Cranborne Keeper of our privy Seale
for the tyme being,
[also] Chappell Comission^
II
[1606, November 7. Enrolment of Commission to Nathaniel Giles, Master of
the Children of the Chapel, from P. R. O. Patent Roll, 4 James \,pars 18, tn dorsoJ]
Comiss5 p Nathanieli lames by the grace of God &c. To
Gyles Mag'ro pueroi^ all and singuler Deanes Archdeacons
Capelle Reg'/ lustices of peace Mayors Sheriffes Bay-
liffj Constables and all other our Officers
and Ministers as well Ecclesiasticall as temporall greetinge. ffor
that it is meete our Chappell Royall shoulde be furnished with
well singinge Children from tyme to tyme wee haue aucthorised
and by these p'sentj; doe aucthorice our welbeloved servaunte
Nathanieli Gyles Master of our Children of our saide Chappell
or his deputie for whome he will answere beinge by his bill or
writinge subscribed and sealed vnder his hande and seale soe
aucthorised and havinge this our p'sent Comission with him
from tyme to tyme as often as occasion shall requier to take
suche and soe many children knowen or comonlie called by the
name of Choristers or anye others whose parent^ or frendes
haue or shall putt to learne the arte of Musicke or singinge to
the ende to gett theire lyvinge thereby in all or anye Cathedrall
Collegiate or parishe Churches Chappells and Schooles where
publique teachinge of Musicke is vsed as well within libties as
without within this our Realme of Englande and dominions
thereof as he or his deputie for whome he will answere as afore-
COMMISSIONS FOR THE CHAPEL 363
saide shall thinke meete anye restrainte or inhibicon to the con-
trarie notwithstandinge The charges and expenses for fetchinge
of anye suche Childe or Children by our saide servaunte or his
deputie to be paide by the Treasurer of our Chamber for the
tyme beinge of suche money of ours as shall come to his handes
from tyme to tyme the same beinge firste rated and allowed by
the lorde Chamberlaine of our howseholde vnder his hande And
the same together with the sighte of this our Cofhission shalbe
to our saide Treasurer of our saide Chamber a sufficient dis-
charge in that behalfe And wee doe allso herebye signifie
that after the chaunge of voice and service spente of anye the
Children soe taken as aforesaide that suche good order shalbe
taken for there p'ferment as by the lorde Chamberlaine of
our howseholde vicechamberlaine and Deane of our Chappell
for the tyme beinge shalbe thoughte meete and convenient
And wee doe further will and comaunde you and eu'ye of you
to whome it shall appteyne [sic] to be helpinge aydinge and
assistinge to our saide servaunte or his saide deputie in the due
execucon of this our Comission as you and eu'ye of you will
answere the contrarie at your pills Prouided alwayes and wee
doe straightlie charge and comaunde that none of the saide
Choristers or Children of the Chappell so to be taken by force
of this Comission shalbe vsed or imployed as Comedians or
Stage players or to exercise or acte anye [sic] or Stage playes
Interludes Comedies or tragedies for that it is not fitt or decent
that suche as shoulde singe the praises of god Allmightie
shoulde be trayned vpp or imployed in suche lascivious and
^phane exercises In witnes whereof &c. witnes our selfe at
Westm' the seaventh daye of November.
p bre de priuato sigillo &c.
PLAYS OF THE KING'S MEN IN 1641
The warrant and schedule here printed are taken from one of
the Lord Chamberlain's Warrant Books in the Public Record
Office (L. C. 5, 96). They occupy the first of a group of unfoliated
written pages towards the end of the volume, most of which is
blank. At the top of the page is the entry, 'Julie 24. 1641
My Lord of Essex receaued the staff.' This refers to the
appointment of the Earl of Essex as Lord Chamberlain in
succession to Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. The
document has not, so far as I know, been printed before. It is
similar in character to two warrants discovered by Malone, and
printed in the Variorum Shakespeare (1821), iii. 159. The first
of these is also a warrant to the Stationers' Company, signed by
the Earl of Pembroke, and dated June 10, 1637. It gives pro-
tection, in terms much like those used by Essex, to the plays of
the King's men, and also to those of ' the king and queenes
young company' under Christopher Beeston. Unfortunately
no schedules of plays are attached. The second, dated Aug. 10,
1639, is addressed, not to the printers, but to the masters and
governors of playhouses other than the Cockpit, and forbids
them to act the plays belonging to William Beeston, ' governor
of the kings and queenes young company of players' at that
house. It contains the well-known list of * Cockpitt playes
appropried'. One of the plays in this list is Fathers owne
Sonne, i. e. Beaumont and Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas. This
was printed in this same year 1639 as * Acted at the Private
House in Blacke Fryers', and it may have been this piratical
raid by the King's men upon the Cockpit repertory which
PLAYS OF THE KING'S MEN 365
instigated Lord Pembroke's order. The list of 1641 may be
taken to include so much of the repertory of the King's men
themselves in 1641 as was not already in print. It need not be
supposed that they had altogether ceased to act Shakespeare's
plays, which had been printed in 1623, or Ben Jonson's, which
had been printed between 161 6 and 1641 itself. The list con-
tains sixty plays in all. Of these, twenty-seven {The Wild
Goose Chase, The Little French Lawyer, The Loyal Subject, The
Spanish Curate, The Custom of the Cotmtry, The Double Mar-
riage, A Wife for A Month, The Island Princess, The Mad
Lover, The Pilgrim, The Woman s Prize, The Knight of Malta,
The Captain, The Humourous Lieutenant, Bonduca, The Chances,
The Maid of the Mill, The Queen of Corinth, The Coxcomb, The
Noble Gentleman, The Beggar s Bush, The Honest Mans For-
tune, The Martial Maid, Valentinian, The Prophetess, The
Lover's Pilgrimage, and The Lover s Progress) belong to the
'Beaumont and Fletcher' series, and were printed in the 1647
Folio, with the exception of The Wild Goose Chase, which
followed separately in 1652. It is noticeable that the order of
these plays in the list is largely, although not wholly, the same
as their order in Robinson and Moseley's Stationers' Register
entry of Sept. 4, 1646, as given by Mr. Greg in his paper on
The Bakings of Betsy in The Library for July, 191 1. The
order in the Folio itself is quite different. The Stationers'
Register entry also contains, as additions by a later hand, three
plays of the same series i^he Laws of Candy, The Women
Pleased, and The Sea Voyage) which certainly belonged to the
King's m.en, but are not in the 1641 list. Two other plays of
the King's men not in the list are The False Ofie and The Fair
Maid of the l7in, which, although printed in 1647, were not
entered in the Register until June 29, 1660, when they were
accompanied by The Nice Valour or the Passionate Madman.
This may, I think, be the play entered in the 1641 list as The
Bridegroom and the Madman. If so, the list has twenty-eight
' Beaumont and Fletcher ' plays. The three other plays of the
1647 volume and the 1660 entry {Wit at Several Weapons,
3 B
366 PLAYS OF THE KING'S MEN
A Mask, Four Plays or Moral Representations) are not trace-
able to the King's men. Of the remaining thirty-two plays
in the 1641 list, three {The City Madam, The Bashful Lover,
The Guardian) and possibly a fourth (The Woman s Plot, if
really identical with A Very Woman, as to which see below)
were subsequently printed as Massinger's ; three {The Mayor
of Quinborough, More Dissemblers Besides Women, The Widow)
as Middleton's ; two {The Goblins, The Discontented Colonel,
i. e. Brennoralt) as Suckling's ; five {The Unfortunate Lovers,
The Fair Favourite, The Distresses, Love and Honour, News
from Plymouth) as Davenant's ; three {The Doubtful Heir, The
Imposttire, The Brothers) as James Shirley's; one {Alphonsus^
Emperor of Germany) as Chapman's ; one ( The Novella) as
Richard Brome's ; one {The Country Captain) as the Duke of
Newcastle's; and one {The Passionate Lovers) as Lodowick
Carlell's. Many of these passed through Humphrey Moseley's
hands, and their titles appear in the Stationers' Register entries
of 1646, 1653, and 1660, printed by Mr. Greg in the Library
article already referred to. These entries also contain the titles of
all the eleven (or twelve) plays of the 1641 list which did not get
printed in the seventeenth century. Arthur Wilson's The Swisser
(printed 1904 from B.M. Addl. MS. 36759), and the same
author's The Corporal {dramatis personae only extant in Bodl.
Rawl. Poet. MS. 9) are in the 1646 entry ; and that of Sept. 9,
1653, includes Wilson's The Inconstant Lady (printed 18 14 from
BodL Rawl. Poet. MS. 9 a), Richard Brome's The Love-sick
Maid (not extant), John Ford's Beauty in A Trance (not extant),
Cyril Tourneur's The Nobleman (not extant), Henry Shirley's
The Spanish Duke of Lerm,a (not extant) ; and Massinger's
Alexius (not extant, unless it is the fragmentary Alice and Alexis
of Bodl. Douce MS. 171, f. 48"), The Forced Lady (not extant),
The Judge (not extant), and Miner vds Sacrifice (not extant).
Six of these unprinted plays of 1641 and 1653 also appear in
John Warburton's list of the collection of manuscript plays said
by him to have been ' burned or put under Pye bottoms ' by his
servant, about the middle of the eighteenth century. These are
PLAYS OF THE KING'S MEN 367
The Inconstant Lady, Beauty in a Trance, The Forced Lady,
Alexius, Minervds Sacrifice, and The Nobleman. The list of
1 64 1, it will be observed, does not, any more than Warburton's
list, confirm the apparent identification in the 1653 Stationers'
Register entry of ' Alexius the Chast Gallant or The Bashful
Lover ' and ' Minerva's Sacrifice, or y^ Forc'd Lady ' as repre-
senting in each case alternative titles for a single play. This
must throw some doubt upon the identification of A Very
Woman with The Woman's Plot, which rests upon the authority
of the same entry. If the identification is not sound, The
Woman's Plot, which both Moseley and Warburton ascribe to
Massinger, must be lost. I may add to Mr. Greg's note on this
play in his Library article that the original authority for the
performance of A Woman! s Plot in 162 1 is Inrier Temple MS.
515, No. 7, printed by J. T. Murray, English Dramatic Com-
panies, ii. 192.
E. K.C.
Sepi. 191 1.
After my harty Comendacons. The players which are his
Ma*^ servant^; haue addressed them selues vnto mee as formerly
to my pr'decessors in office, complaining that some Printers are
about to Print & publish some of their Playes which hitherto
they haue beene vsually restrained from by the Authority of the
Lord Chamberlain. Their Request seemes both iust and reason-
able, as onely tending to preserue them Masters of their proper
Goodj, which in lustice ought not to bee made com on for
another mannes profitt to their disadvantage. Vpon this Ground
therfore I am induced to require your care (as formerly my
Predecessors haue done) that noe Playes belonging to them bee
put in Print w^hout their knowledge & consent. The particulars
to which they now lay claime are contained in a List inclosed,
3 B 2
368
PLAYS OF THE KING'S MEN
and if any of those Playes shall bee offered to y^ Presse vnder
another name then is in the List expressed, I shall desire yo*"
care that they may not bee defrauded by that meanes but that
they may bee made acquainted w*h it, before they bee recorded
in y*" hall & soe haue Oportunity to shew their right vnto them.
And thus not doubting of y"" ready care herin I bid you hartily
farewell & rest Aug. 7. 1641.
Yo*" very loueing friend
Essex
To my very loueing friendj
the Masters & Wardens A List of y* Playes followes.
of y^ Company of Printers
& Stationers.
[col. i] The wild goose chase.
The litle french Lawyer.
The Loyall subject.
The Spanish Curat.
The Custome o* th Cuntry.
The double marriage.
A wife for a moneth.
The Island Princes.
The mad Louer.
The Pilgrim.
The Maior of Quinborow &c.
The womans Plott.
The womans prize &c.
The Switzar.
More dissemblers beside women.
The widow.
The kn^ of Malta.
The Nouella.
The louesick maid.
The Captaine.
[col. 2] The humerous Lieuetennt.
Bunduca.
The inconstant Lady.
Chances.
The maid of the Mill.
The Bridegroome & y^ Madma.
The Queene of Corinth.
The Coxcombe.
The noble gentleman.
Beggars.
The honest mans fortune.
The martiall maide.
Beauty in a Trance.
The forc'd Lady.
Alexius.
The vnfortunate Louers.
The faire fauorite.
The Emperour Valentinian.
The Goblins.
The distresses.
The doubtfuU heire.
The Imposture.
The Country Captaine. [col. 3]
The discontented Colonell.
PLAYS OF THE KING'S MEN
The Brothers.
Mineruae's sacrifice.
The Judge.
The Citty madam.
The Corporall.
Alfonso Emper°'' of Germany.
The Nobleman.
The bashfull Louer.
Loue & honor.
369
The I"' & 2^ p* of y^ Passion*
louer.
The Guardian.
The Duke of Lerma
Spanish Duke.
The Prophetesse.
The Louers Pilgrimage.
The Louers Progresse.
News from Plimouth.
or y*
DRAMATIC RECORDS FROM THE PRIVY
COUNCIL REGISTER, 1 603-1 642
As the indifference of the country to historical research has
permitted the Treasury to suspend the publication of the Ac^s
of the Privy Coimczl earned on by Sir John Dasent up to the
end of the reign of Elizabeth, it has seemed to the Council of
the Malone Society worth while to put upon record complete
and authoritative texts of all entries in the Privy Council
Register during the reigns of James I and Charles I, up to the
closing of the theatres in 1642, which bear in any way upon
dramatic history. For this purpose, fresh transcripts have been
taken of all entries indicated in the excellent manuscript indexes
to the Register ; a search by sample through several volumes
of the Register for unindexed entries of dramatic interest has
not produced results sufficient to justify its continuance. The
texts now published confirm, with only minor corrections and
additions, the substantial accuracy of those given by George
Chalmers in Ayi Apology for the Believers in the Shakespeare-
Papers (1797) and by J!. P. Collier in his History of English
Dramatic Poetry (1837, 2nd ed. 1879). It is matter for regret
that the Jacobean Registers do not begin until May i, 161 3;
the earlier volumes were probably burnt in the fire which con-
sumed the Whitehall Banquetting House on January 12, 16 19.
Of this John Chamberlain wrote to Sir Dudley Carleton on
January 16 (T. Birch, Court and Times of James /, ii. 124):
' One of the greatest losses spoken of, is the burning of all, or
most of the writings and papers belonging to the offices of the
Signet, Privy Seal and Council Chamber, which were under it*
The loss is very inadequately supplied by the brief abstract of
DRAMATIC RECORDS 371
the Register, covering the period 1603-16 10, in a manuscript
which probably belonged to Sir Julius Caesar, and now forms
British Museum Additional MS. 11402. In using these docu-
ments, it should of course be borne in mind that the Register is
not a complete record of matters that came before the Privy
Council, but little more than a Letter Book in which copies or
summaries, often far from accurate, of outgoing letters and
warrants were preserved by the Clerks, together with the names
of the Councillors present at the meetings at which directions
for the issue of the documents were given. These were not
always the Councillors by whom the documents were actually
signed. Subsidiary papers on matters dealt with by the Council
are often to be found in the series of Domestic State Papers.
The gratitude of the Society is due to the Clerk of the Privy
Council, for the courtesy with which facilities were afforded for
consulting the Register. The General Editor has been good
enough to make himself responsible for checking the accuracy
of the texts.
E. K. C.
July 22, 1911.
I
[i 604, April 9. From British Museum Additional MS. 1 1 402, f. 93^. Printed
by J. R. Dasent, Acts of the Privy Council, xxxii. 511. A contemporary copy of
the letter of which this entry is an abstract exists at Dulwich, and is printed by
W. W. Greg, Henslowe Papers, 61.]
9 Ap., 1604 A Ire to the lo: mayo'^ & the lustices of Surrey &
midd' to suffer the players to playe againe lent being past &c
II
[1605, October 5. From British Museum Additional 3IS. 11402, f. 107.
Not previously printed.]
5° Octob. [1605.] A Ire to the Lo: may*^: to forbidde Stage
plaies & to take order that the infectede bee kept in their
howses. &c.
Like Ires to the lustices of the peace of middlesex & Surrey.
372 DRAMATIC RECORDS
III
[1605, December 15. From British Museum Addiiional MS. 11402, f. 109.
Not previously printed.]
15 Decemb. [1605.] Lres to the Lo: may'', the Justices of
midd & surrey to suffer the K. the Q & the Princes Players,
to play & recite their enterludj at their accustomed places.
IV
[16 1 5, March 29. From Privy Council Register, James I, vol. i, fol. 283.
Printed by J. P. Collier, History of English Dramatic Poetry (ed. 1879), i. 380.]
[Sitting of 29 March 161 5.]
A Warrant to lohn vSentie one of the Messinge".
Whereas lohn Hemming^, Richard Burbidge, Christopher
Beeston, Robert Lee, William Rowley, John Newton, Thomas
Downton, Humphry leffs w*** others Stageplayers in and about
the Citty of London have presumed notwithstanding the
comaundem* of the Lo: Chamberlayne signified vnto them by
the Master of the Revells to play this prohibited time of Lent.
Theese are therefore to will and commaund yo"^ to make yo""
repayre vnto the persons abouenamed, and to charge them in
his Ma'^ name to make their appearance heere before vs of his
Ma'^ Privie Councell on ffriday next at 8 of the Clocke in the
forenoone w'^'out any excuse or delay. And in the meane time
that neither they, nor the rest of their Company presume to
present any Playes or interludes, as they will answere the
contrary at their perills./
V
[16 1 5, September 26, and 16 17, January 27. From P. C. Register, James I,
ii. 74, 516. Printed by G. Chalmers, Apology for the Believers, 463, and there-
from in the Variorum Shakespeare (182 1), iii. 493, with certain errors, of which
PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER 373
' Sanders ' for ' Sanders ' is the most important. The licence for the erection of the
theatre, dated June 3, 1615, is printed from the Patent Roll in pt. iii, p. 277, of
these CoUectionsJ]
(I)
[Sitting of 26 September 161 5.]
Whereas Complaint was made to this Boarde by the Lo: Mayo"^
and Aldermen of the Cittie of London That one Rosseter, and
others havinge obtayned lycense vnder the great Seale of
Englande for the buildinge of a Play house haue pulled downe
a great Messuage in Puddle wharfe, w'^'' was sometimes the
house of the Ladie Sanders w'^'in the Precinct of the Blackfryers,
are nowe erectinge a Newe Playhouse in
Ordered at the that place, to the great p'iudice and incon-
Sessions next venience of the Gouerment of that Cittie :
before./ Their Lips thought fitt to send for Rosseter
to bringe in his Lres Patentes, w*'^ beinge seene,
and pervsed by the Lo: Chiefe lustice of Englande ffor-
asmuch as the Inconveniences vrged by the Lo: Mayo' and
Aldermen were many, and of some consequence to their
Goverm\ And specially for that the said Play house would
adioyne soe neere vnto the Church in Blackfryers, as it
would disturbe, and interrupt the Congregacon at divine Service
vpon the weeke dayes : And that the Lo: Chiefe lustice did
deliver to their Lips. That the Lycence graunted to the said
Rosseter did extende to the buildinge of a Playhouse w'^'out the
liberties of London, and not w^'^in the Cittie. It was this day
ordred by their Lips. That there shalbe noe Play house erected
in that place, And that the Lo Mayo"" of London shall straitly
prohibit, and forbidd the said Rosseter and the rest of the
Patentees, and their workemen to proceede in the makeinge,
and convertinge the said Buildinge into a Play house : And if
any of the Patentees or their workemen shall proceede in their
intended buildinge contrary to this their Lips. Inhibicon, that
then the Lo: Mayo' shall cofhitt him or them soe offendinge,
vnto Prison and certefie their Lips, of their contempt in that
3c
374 DRAMATIC RECORDS
behalfe. Of w*=^ their Lips, order the said Rosseter, and the
rest are to take notice, and conforme themselves accordingly as
they will aunsweare to the contrary at their perrillej.
(2)
[Sitting of 27 January 16 16/7.]
A letter to the Lo: Mayor of London. Whereas his Ma*'^ is
informed that notwithstanding diverse Commaundemen'^ and
prohibicons to the contrary there bee certaine persons that goe
about to sett vp a Play howse in the Blacke ffrya" neere vnto
his Ma*^ Wardrobe, and for that purpose have lately erected
and made fitt a Building, w'''' is allmost if not fully finished, Yo"
shall vnderstand that his Ma*y hath this day expressly signifyed
his pleasure, that the same shalbee pulled downe, so as it bee
made vnfitt for any such vse, whereof wee Require yo"" Lo:pp to
take notice, and to cause it to bee performed accordingly w'"" all
speede, and therevpon to certify vs of yo*^ proceeding^. And
so &ct
VI
[1617, March 5. From P. C. Register, James I, ii. 574. Printed by
Chalmers, Apology, 466 {Variorum, iii. 495). Dekker, Owles Almanack (1617),
identifies the theatre concerned as the Cockpit.]
[Sitting of 5 March 1 616/7.]
A Letter to the Lo: Maior & Aldermen of London, and
Comissioners of Oyer & Terminer in the citty of London &
Countye of Midlesex.
It is not vnknowne vnto yo"^ what tumultuous outrages were
yesterday Committed neere vnto the Citty of London in diuerse
places, by a Rowte of lewde and loose psons Apprentices and
others, especially in Lincolnes Inne feildes and Drewry Lane,
where in attempting to pull downe a Playhowse belonging to
PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER 375
the Queenes Ma*^ Servantj', there were diuerse psons slayne,
and others hurte and wounded, the multitude there assembled
being to the nomber of many thousand^ as wee are credibly
informed, fforasmuche as the example of so fowle and insolent
a disorder may prove of dangerous consequence if this should
escape w'^'out sharpe punishment of the principall Offendo",
Wee doe therfore in his Ma*^ name expressly require yo"" Lp:
and the rest of the Comissioners of Oyer and Terminer for the
Citty of London and Countie of Midlesex, to take it presently
into yo*" Care to haue a strict enquiry made for suche as were
of y* company aswell Apprentices or others, and furthw*** to
holde a speciall Sessions of Oyer and Terminer for that purpose,
and there w''' severity to proceede against suche as shall be
founde Offendo", as to lawe and Justice apperteineth. And for
that it was also observed that amongst this crew of Apprentices
there were an exceeding greate multitude of vagrant Rogues
gathered together as there are allwayes about this Citty ready
for any mischeife vpon every occasion, a greate dishono"" and
scandall to the Gouernment. Wee are therfore to recomend
that also vnto yo'*' from his Ma*y as a speciall Charge, that yo"
doe thincke vpon some Course and put it in execution presently
for the dispercyng of that sorte of people and removing of them
farre from about the Citties of London & Westm' : and the Con-
fines thereof, especially at this present when his Ma*^ and a greate
pte of his Councell are to be absent for so longe a tyme. And
as providence and discretion doth now needfully require, since
this warning is given yo'', to have at all times hereafter an eye
and watch vpon the Apprentices likewise, who by this experience
and the like where the Reynes of libertye are given them, are
founde apte to runne into many vnsufferable insolencies. Touch-
ing all these pointj his Ma'^ will expect a strict and pticular
accompte from yo"* of yo' duties, wherof wee wishe yo"^ may
acquitt yo^'selues as becometh yo''. And so &c./
c 2
376 DRAMATIC RECORDS
VII
[1617, June 22. From P. C. Register, James I, iii. 55. Printed by Chalmers,
Apology, 492.]
[Sitting of 22 June 161 7.]
A letter to S*": George Buck knight, M^ of the Revells.
Wee are informed that there are certeyne Players or Comedians
wee knowe not of what Company, that goe about to play some
enterlude concerning the late Marquesse d'Ancre, w*"^ for many
respectj wee thincke not fitt to be suffered : Wee doe therefore
require yo"^ vpon yo"" pill to take order that the same be not
represented or played in any place about this Citty or ellswhere,
where yo"^ haue authoritie. And hereof haue yo"" a speciall
Care. So &c'./
VIII
[1617, July II. From P. C. Register, James I, iii. 84. Printed by Chalmers,
Apology, 467 {Variorum, iii. 496), and Collier, i. 391. Warrants for payments
to players occur regularly in the Elizabethan registers, but the present entry is
exceptional in those of James. The accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber
show that in 1615 the duty of signing these warrants was taken over by the
Lord Chamberlain. It appears from the accounts that payment was made,
at the rate of £10 a play, to John Townsend and Joseph Moore (P. Cunningham,
Extracts Jrom Accounts of the Revels at Court, xUv). These belonged to the
Lady Elizabeth's men.]
[Sitting of II July 161 7.]
A warrante to the L: Stanhope Trer of his Ma^'^^ Chamber to
cause paym' to be made to certaine players for three Stage
Playes that were acted before his Ma*'^ in his lourney to
Scotland suche surhes of Money as is vsuall in the like kinde.
PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER 377
IX
[1618, February 12. From P. C. Register, James I, iii. 268. The letter to
Middlesex was printed by Collier, i. 394; that to London has not previously
been printed.]
(l)
[Sitting of 12 February 161 7/8.]
A Lre to his Ma'. Lieutennaunts of the Countie of Mid:^. /
It is well knowne vnto yo"^ what disorder and tumulte was
comitted the last Shroue Tuesday in diuers partes aboute the
Cittie by the Apprentices and other leude and ill affected
persons to the great disturbaunce of his Ma', peace, and the
hurte of many poore men. And though diuers of the offenders
were comitted to Newgate, and proceeded w'^all at the Sessions
accordinge to lawe : Yet they are soe farr from beinge warned
by that example as they rather take occasion thereby, in regarde
that some of their ffellowes were in dainger and punished the
last yeare, to cast sedicious lybells into Playhouses in the name
of some London ffellowe Apprentices, to Summon others in
the Skirtes and Confynes, to meete at the ffortune, and after
that to goe to the Playhouses the Redd Bull, and the Cock
Pitt, w*"^ they haue designed to rase, and pull downe : besides
what further mischiefe may ensue therevpon to the Scandall
of Goverment, and the great contempt of his Ma', lawes. ffor
p'vention whereof wee thinke it very expedient : As wee haue
addressed o*" L?es to the Lo: Mayo"", and Aldermen of the Cittie
of London, Soe to require yo"^ by virtue of his Ma'. Comission
of Lieutennancye directed vnto yo"^, to take the like Order vpon
Shroue Tuesday next, as yo'^ did vpon May day last, by settinge
good, and substanciall Watches in such places as shalbe meete,
and by appointinge some of the trayned Baundes to bee mustered,
and trayned that day, in such convenient places in the Skirtes,
and Confynes of the Cittie, as may serue for the Suppressinge
of any Ryott, or tumulte, that may happen by the disorder of
378 DRAMATIC RECORDS
such leude people. Whereof wee require yo"" to haue a speciall
care. And soe &c./
(»)
[Same sitting.]
An other of the Hke teno*^ to the Lo: Mayo' and Aldermen of
the Cittie of London requireinge them to take speciall, and
effectuall order, that every man w^'in their lurisdicon, doe keepe
in their Servaunts, and Apprentices, and not suffer any of them
to goe abroade that day, and to sett a good, and stronge Watch
at each Gate, and such other places, as shalbe meete : And w^'^all
to have either the Millitary Bande, or some competent nomber
of the Trayned Bande in a readines for the Suppressinge of
any tumultuous disorder that shall happen in that kinde. /
X
[1623, May 30. From P. C. Register, James I, v. 735. This does not
appear to have been previously printed from the Register, but a copy of the letter
as received at Norwich is preserved in the Liber Ruber Civiiatis, f. 33, and is
printed therefrom in Eastern Counties Collectanea, i, no. 13, and by J. T. Murray,
English Dramatic Companies, ii. 359. The text diflfers so widely from that of the
Register, as to suggest that the entry in the latter was made from a rough draft.
The Norwich copy, moreover, is dated May 27, 1623, and the signatories are not
the same as the Councillors present on May 30.]
[Letter dated 30 May 1623.]
Signed.
Lo: Arch B:pp of Cant: Lo: V: Wallingford.
Lo: Trear. Lo: Carewe.
Lo: President. Lo: Chichester.
Lo: Steward. M^: Trear.
E: Marshall. M*" Sec?e Caluert.
E: of Carlile. M^: of the Roles.
A Ire to the Mayo'^: of Norwich. Wheras we have received
informacon by M": Gleane, an Alderman of yo"^: Cittye, that
PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER 379
yo": have beene of late yeares, and are at this p'sent, much
pestered, and disquietted in the orderly gouernm* of yo':
Towne, by seuerall Companies of Playe": Tumblers, and such
as Carrie a boute Pagentj, and shewes, and the lyke : the suffer-
ing whereof is alleadged to be more inconvenient to that Cittye,
then to most others, by reason it consist^ altogeither of many
seuerall Manufactures, whein [sic] multitudes of people are sett
on worke, who being apte to be drawne a way from theire workj,
and labour, by this sorte of loose, and wandering people, the
said manufactures are in the meane tyme in such sorte neglected,
as causeth dayly noe small losse, and dammage, to that Citty
in pticuler, and is by consequence, noe small hurt and p'iudice,
to the Comon wealth in generall. Wee takeing the same into
o'': Consideracons and tenderinge ever the good and welfare
of that Citty, have thought good hereby to pray and require
yo": not to suffer any Companies, either of Playe": or of any
the foresaid loose condiconed people, to act any Playes, or shewe
any other of theire feates, and devises, w'^'in that Citty, and the
liberties of the same, vntill yo°: shall receive farther order from
this Board. And soe wee bid &c.
XI
[1624, August 18, 21, and 30. From P. C. Register, James I, vi. 424, 425,
428, 429. No. (4) was printed by Chalmers, Apology, 500, together with another
text of (2) and letters from Sir Edward Conway to the Privy Council of August 12
and 27, doubtless from the originals which now form 6". P. Dom. James I,
clxxi. 39, 64, 75. Having apparently failed to notice (3) Chalmers treated
' Edward' as a mistake for ' Thomas'. This error was corrected and (i) and (3)
cited by T. Hornby in The Shakespeare Society's Papers, ii. 103. Collier, i. 427,
apparently only copied Chalmers's material, but being ignorant of its source, he
assumed it to be the Register and stated that the correspondence between Conway
and the Council was there 'inserted at length'. No. (3) was printed by A. H. BuUen,
Works oj Thomas Middleton, i. Ixxviii. No. (i) and no. (2), so far as the Register
text is concerned, seem now to be printed for the first time. The play in question
was Middleton's A Game oJ Chess. A letter of August 1 2 on the subject written
by Sir Francis Nethersole is in S. P. Dom. James I, clxxi. 49. Collier, i. 431,
prints another as written by the Earl of Pembroke to the Council on August 27.
38o DRAMATIC RECORDS
He states it to be ' in the library of F. Ouvry, Esq.' Unfortunately he had
previously cited it, in his New Particulars (1836), 49, as being in the State Paper
Office, and the failure to find it there threw doubt upon its genuineness (C. M. Ingleby,
A Complete View of the Shakspere Controversy, 3 1 4). The doubt was unfounded,
and the original is now preserved, with other Collier papers, in the British Museum
(MS. Egerton, 2623, art. 17).]
{')
[Sitting of 18 August 1624.]
A warrant directed to Ralph Robinson one of the Messengers
of his ma*^: Chamber to bring [blank'] Middleton before theire
LLq.pps j-q answer &c. /
[Sitting of 21 August 1624.]
A Ire to M*" Sec: Conway
After &c Accordinge to his Ma*^: pleasure signified to this Board
by yo*" Ire of the 12"' of Aug: touching the suppressing of a
Scandalous Comedie, Acted by the Kings Players, We haue
called before vs some of the principall Actors & demanded of
them by what lycence and Authoritie, they have p'sumed to
Act the same, in answere wherevnto they produced a Booke
being an Orriginall and perfect Coppie thereof (as they affirmed)
seene and allowed by S'^ Henry Herbert k* M"^ of the Reuells
vnder his owne hand, and subscribed in the last page of the
said Booke We demanding further whether there were noe
other ptj or Passages represented on the Stage, then those
expressly contayned in the Booke, they confidently protested,
they added or varied from the same, nothing at all The Poett
they tell vs is one Middleton who shifting out of the way, and
not attending the Board w'*" the rest, as was expected We haue
giuen warrant to a Messeng*^ for the Apprehending of him. To
those that were before vs, we gaue a sound and sharpe reprooff
making them sensible of his Ma*^ high displeasure herein, giving
them straight Charg and Comand, that they presume not to Act
the said Comedie any more, nor that they suffer any Plaie or
PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER 381
Enterlude whatsoever to he acted by them or any of their
Company, vntill his Ma'^: pleasure be fiirder knowne. We haue
Caused them lykevvlse to enter into Bond for their Attendance
vpon the Board, whensoever they shalbe called, As for our
Certifying to his Ma: (as was intimated by yo"" Ire) what passage
in the said Comedie we should fynd to be Offensiue and
Scandalous, we have thought it our duties for his Ma*^: Clearer
informacon, to send herew'^'all the Booke it selfe subscribed as
aiforesaid by the M*" of the Revells, that soe ither yo"" selfe,
or some other whom his Ma*'^ shall appoint to puse the same,
may see the passages themselues out of the Orriginall, and call
S*" Henry Herbert before yo** to know a reason of his lycensing
thereof who (as we are given to vnderstand) is now attending
at Court, soe having doone as much, as we conceived agreeable
w*** our duties in Conformitie to his Ma*'^: Royall Comandem'^.,
and that w'''' we hope shall giue him full satisfaccon. We shall
contynew our humble prayers to Almightie God for his health
and safetie. And bid yo" very &c./
(3)
[Sitting of 30 August 1624.]
A warrant directed to Robert Goffe one of the Messengers of
his Ma*^: Chamber to bring one Midleton sonne to Midleton
the Poet before theire L1o:p^ to answer &c.
(4)
[Sitting of 30 August 1624.]
This daie Edw: Middleton of London gent, being formerly sent
for by warrant from the Board tendred his Apparaunce, w'^'' for
his Indempnitie is here entred into the Register of Councell
Causes nevertheless he is enioyned to attend the Board, till he
be discharged by Order from their Io^p^./
3i>
382 DRAMATIC RECORDS
XII
[1626, May 17. From P. C. Register, Charles /, i, fol. 334''. Printed, and
misdated ' 25'^ May', by Collier, i, 445.]
[Sitting of 17 May 1626.]
Letter to the lustices of the peace of the County of Surrey./
Whereas wee are informed that on thursday next, diuers loose
and Idle persons, some Saylors, and others, haue appointed to
meete at the Playhouse called the Globe, to see a Play (as is
pretended) but their ende is thereby to disguise some Routous
and Riotous accon, we haue therefore thought fit to giue yo"^,
notice of the informacon which we haue receiued concerning
this their purpose, And doe likewise hereby will and require
yo"^, to take very carefull and strict order, that no Play be acted
on that day, and also to haue that strength about yo"^, as yo*
shall thinke sufficient for the suppressing of anie insolencies, or
other mutinous intensions, that yo"^ shall perceiue, and to take
with yo"^ the vnder sheriffe of that County, for the further
assisting of yo"^, if there be cause. And so not doubting of yo*"
care herein. Wee Etc./
XIII
[1630, April 14. From P. C. Register, Charles I, v. 752. Not previously
printed ; but the order of which the entry is an abstract, as well as a supplementary
order of April 23, not recorded in the Register, was printed from the City Remem-
brancia at p. 96 of these Collections?^
[Sitting of 14 April 1630.]
It was this day ordered by the Board, in regard of the great
apprehension and appearaunce of the increase of the Sicknes ;
that all Stage Playes, Bearebeatingj', and all manner of
Assemblies for sportj or Pastimes, shall bee forbidden ; and
their Lops: doe hereby pray and require the Lord Chamblaine
PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER 383
of his Ma'^. household, to take effectual! order, to suppresse and
prohibite the same accordingly.
XIV
[1623, June 8. From P. C. Register, Charles I, viii. 71. Not previously
printed.]
[Letter dated 8 June 1632.]
A Lre to S"": Henry Spiller K': Lawrence Whitacars, and
George Long Esq"^: & others lustices of peace of the County of
Midd./
Wheras the high way leading a long the backside of the
Cockpitt playhouse neere Lincolnes Inne Feilds, and the streete
called Queenes streete adioyneing to the same, are become
verie fowle and almost impassable, And for that the said high
way by reason of the new buildings, now erecting there, is
become a streete, through w'^'': his ma*'^: and o': selues and divers
of his Subiects doe often passe. And therfore it is verie
necessarie & fitt that the same should be paued w*^: stones, as
other Streetes are. We haue therfore thought good hereby to
pray and require you, or anie three of you, to call all such psons
before you, as haue any Grounds or houses abutting vpon the
said high way, and the said streete called Queenes Streete ;
And to make reasonable assesm*: vpon them towards the
pauem*: of the same, according to the pporcon of Ground or
buildings, that everie of the said owners and Inhabitants hold.
And thervpon to enioyne them and everie of them, to pane or
gravill, and lay even the said high way and streete, w^'' all
convenient speede. And further we doe alsoe require you, to
giue charge to all the said Inhabitants, that they sett not any
Rayles, or Posts, aboue hue or six foote at the most from theire
houses or walls, And alsoe that none doe lay either Stones or
Tymber in the Streete, to hinder the said passages. And if any
shall refuse, to conforme themselves to such order, as you shall
sett downe for the effecting hereof, you are then to certifie theire
3 D 2
384 DRAMATIC RECORDS
names to the Board, that such further Course may be taken w*''
them as shalbe fitt. And soe &c: Signed vt ante.
[i. e. Lord Keeper. Ea of Kelley
Lo: Bp of Yorke. M*": Secre Coke.
Lo: Priuie Seale. Ea: of Bridgwater.
Ea of Exeter Ea of Danby/].
XV
[1633, ^^^^y 22 and June 3 and 8. From P. C. Register, Charles I, ix. 51,
52, 85, 87. Nos. (i) and (4) were printed, the latter being misdated 'June 4"^',
and the other entries described, by Collier, i. 474. He also prints the letter of
May 6 from the Banbury Justices. This is preserved, together with twelve
enclosed ' Examinations ' in S. P. Dom. Charles I, ccxxxviii. 32.]
(I)
[Sitting of 22 May 1633.]
A Lre to the Mayo*", of Banbury
Wee haue seene yo^ Lres of the 6*'' of this Instant moneth as
also a Patent of Licence pretended to be graunted by his Ma*'^,
a Comission from the Master of the Reuells, and the examinacons
of those DeHnquents being (as you say) wandering Roagues,
and daungerous persons ; And as we concurr with you in opinion
that there may be forgerie, and rasure both in the said Patent
and comission so wee doe approue and Cofhend the discreete
cou'"se you haue taken in comitting them to the corhon prison of
yo'. Burrough Now to the end that this abuse may be farther
searched into and examined ; wee doe hereby require and
authorise you to cause lones, and the rest of his compHces (being
fiue more) that are detained vnder restraint, to be released, and
forthwith deliuered to this bearer Robert Cross one of the
Messingers of his Ma'^ Chamber, who hath warrant from this
Board to receiue them at yo*". hands, and to bring them hether
to answere before vs for the crymes and misdemeanors, where-
with they stand charged, and therevpon to be pceeded withall
PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER 385
acording to the qualitie of their offences and the Comon Lawes
and lustice of this Kingdome. And so &c\ signed Lo: Keeper.
Lo: Privie Seale. Lo: high: Chamt)laine. Ea: of Dorset Ea:
of Bridgewater. Ea: of Danby Lo: Vise: Wentworth Lo
Vise: ffalkland. Lo: Cottington: Lo: Newburgh M*" Seer
Windebanke.
[Same Sitting.]
An open Warrant with a clause of Assistance directed to Robert
Cross to fetch Bartholomew I ones, Richard Whiting, Edward
Damport, Drew Turnor, Robert Haughton, and Richard
Collwell (now in prison at Banbury,) before their Lopp^: signed
as the pass for Mons"". Sonnburgh. [i. e. Lo: Keeper, Lo: Privie
Seale. Ea: of Dorset Ea: of Bridgwater Lo: Vise: Wentworth.
Lo: Cottington, M"" Seer: Windebank Lo: high Chamblaine
Ea: of Danby Lo: Vise: ffalkland. Lo: Newburgh]
(3)
[Sitting of 3 June 1633.]
This day Bartholomewe lones. Rich: lohnson, Edward
Dauenport, True Turner, Robert Haughton, & Rich: Colwell
being formerly sent for by Warrant from the Board tendered
theire Appearances, and are to remayne in the Messengers
Custodie till further order./
(4)
[Sitting of 8 June 1633.]
This day the Players form'ly sent for from Banbury were
discharged out of the Messeng". custody vpon Bond giuen to be
forthcoming whensoeu' they should be called for./
386 DRAMATIC RECORDS
XVI
[1633, October 9, November 20 and 29, and December 29. From P. C.
Register, Charles /, ix. 267, 343, 355, 417. No. (i) is printed and nos. (2) (3)
and (4) described by Collier, i. 476. No. (2) is printed, from a copy preserved
amongst the City Reviemhrancia, at p. 98 of these Collections. Collier also
reprinted from his New Facts (1835), 27, a certificate of 20 Nov. 1633, signed by
Henry Spiller, William Baker, Humphrey Smith, Lawrence Whitaker, and William
Childe, there described as Justices of Middlesex, and containing a valuation of the
interest of the players in the Blackfriars, as required by (i). C. M. Ingleby, Complete
View of the Shakspere Cojttroversy, 304, suspected this on the ground that it
could not be found at Bridgewater House. But Collier does not say that it was
there : he says that it was in his own possession, and in his Reply (i860), 39, that
it was confirmed by another document given him from Bridgev/ater House and
partly written by Sir George Buck. It is unfortunate that Sir George Buck had
been for ten years dead by 1633. Nevertheless I think that the certificate is
genuine, for various reasons, the most important of which is that its main figures
are confirmed by Sir Francis Windebank's notes of the Council meeting of 20 Nov.
preserved in S. P. Dom. Charles /, ccli, p. 293, but apparently unknown to
Collier.!
(i)
[Sitting of 9 October 1633.]
Touching the Vpon Consideracon this day had at the Board
Playhouse in of the greate inconvenience and annoyance
Black Fraires. occasioned by the Resorte and Confluence of
Coaches to the Play house in Black ffryers
Whereby the Streetes being narrow thereabouts are at those
tymes become impassable, to the greate p^'iudice of his ma*^:
Subiects passing that way vpon theire seuerall occacons and
in pticular to divers Noblemen, and Councello": of State
whose howses are that way, Wherby they are many tymes
hindred from theire necessary attendance vpon his ma'^: pson
and service. Theire Lopps calling to mynde that formerly
vpon Complaint hereof made, the Board was of opinion, that
the said Play house was fitt to be remoued from thence,
and that an indifferrent Recompence & allowance should be
giuen them for theire Interests in the said house, and buildings
thervnto belonging. Did therfore thinke fitt and order, that
S"": Henry Spiller and S"": William Becher K'': the Alderman of
PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER 387
the Ward Lawrence Whitaker Esq*": and \bla7iJi\ Child Citizen
of London, or any three of them be hereby required to call such
of the pties interessed before them, as they shall thinke fitt and
vpon heareing theire demaunds, and viewe of the place, to make
an indifferent Estimate and valewe of the said house and buildings,
and of theire Interests therin, and to agree vpon, and sett downe
such Recompence to be giuen for the same, as shall be reason-
able, and thervpon to make Report to the Board of theire
doeings and pceedings therin by the 26: of this p^'sent.
(=!)
[Sitting of 20 November 1633.]
About going to Whereas y^ Board hath taken consideracon of
y^ Black ffryars the great inconveniefics that growe by reason
Play house in of the resort to the Play house of y^Black-ffryars
Coaches in Coaches, whereby the streets neare there-
unto, are at the Playtime so stopped that
his Ma'^ Subiects going about their necessarie affayres can
hardly finde passage and are oftentymes endangered : Their
tps remembring that there is an easie passage by water vnto
that playhouse w'Wt troubling the streets, and that it is much
more fit and reasonable that those w^*" goe thither should goe
thither by water or else on foote rather than the necessarie
businesses of all others, and the publique Commerce should
be disturbed by their pleasure, doe therefore Order, that if
anie pson man or woman of what Condicon soever repaire to
the aforesayd Playhouse in Coach so soone as they are gone
out of their Coaches the Coach men shall departe thence and
not retourne till the ende of the play, nor shall stay or retourne
to fetch those whom they carryed anie nearer w*** their Coaches
then the farther parte of S* Paules Church yarde on the one
syde, and ffleet-Conduite on the other syde, and in y^ tyme
bet\veene their departure and retume shall either returne home
or else abide in some other streets lesse frequented with
passengers and so range their Coaches in those places that the
388 DRAMATIC RECORDS
way be not stopped, w*''' Order if anie Coachman disobey, the
next Constable or Officer is hereby charged to comit him
p'"sently to Ludgate or Newgate; And the Lo: Mayor of y*
Citie of London is required to see this carefully pfourmed by
the Conestables and Officers to whom it apperteyneth and to
punish every such Conestable or officer as shall be found negligent
therein. And to the ende that none may p'^tende ignorance
hereof, it is lastly ordered that Copies of this Order, shalbe set vp
at Paules Chaine, by direction of the Lorde Mayor, also at the
west ende of S' Paules Church, at Ludgate and the Blackfryers
Gate and Fleete Conduite./
(3)
[Sitting of 29 November 1633.]
A Lre to the Lo: Mayor of London/
Wee send yo*" Lp'. herew*** an order of this Board for redresing
of the inconveniences that growe by reeson of the greate resorte
in Coaches to the play house in the Black-fryers, w"* [sic] order
wee doe here by pray and earnestly require yo' lp' to see fully
and diligently executed in every point there of, and so much the
rather in regarde it is of no lesse vnsemelinesse to the Citie then
of trouble and annoyance to his Ma'^. subiectj". And so ex-
pecting yo"" Lp's performance of these our directions, we bid
yo*" [sic] Ec, Signed Lo Archb: of Cant. Lo: Keeper, LoArcht):
of Yorke, Lo: Treas^*, Lo: Priuie-Seale, Erie Marshall, Lo
vise: wimbledon. M"". Treasurer, M'. Secret: Coke. M^ Secret:
Windebanck./
(4)
[Sitting of 29 December 1633.]
Ordered the 29''': the King &c being present.
Touching the Vpon Informacon this day giuen to the Board
Playhouse in of the discomoditie that divers psons of greate
Blackfryers. quallity especially Ladies and Gentlewomen,
did receiue in goeing to the Playhouse of
Blackfriers, by reason that noe Coaches may stand w^^'in the
PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER 389
Blackfriers Gate or retourne thither dureing the Play, and of
the p'iudice the Players his ma*^ Servants doe receiue therby.
But especially that the Streetes are soe much the more in-
cumberred w*'' the said Coaches. The Board takeing into
Consideracon the former order of the 20''': of Nouember last
concerning this busines, did thinke fitt to explaine the said
order, in such manner that as many Coaches as may stand w^'^in
the Blackfriers Gate, may may [sic] enter and stay ther, or
retourne thither at the end of the Play, but that the said former
order of the 20''' of NouemV: be duly observed in all other pts.
Wherof aswell the Lord Mayo"": as all other his ma'^: officers who
are prayed and required to see the said order observed are to
take notice./
XVII
[1634, January 29. From P. C. Register, Charles /, ix. 458. Printed, not
from the Register, but from a copy amongst the City Remembrancta, at p. 99 of
these Collections. The mask was Shirley's Triumph of Peace i\
[Letter dated 29 January 1633/4.]
A Lre to the Lord Mayo*", of the Cittie of London
Whereas the gentlemen of the Inns of Courts, haue desired
permission to present to their Ma*^ a Mask, w'^''. his Ma''^ out
of his Royall fauor towards them, hath ben gratiously pleased
to accept, and it is to be performed in the begining of the next
weeke. To the end they may haue the better and fairer way
in their passage towards his Ma'^ Court, and likewise to preuent
all disorders, and disturbances, w''^. in the like cases vsually
happen, by the concourse of vnruly people, wee doe therefore
hereby pray and expressly require your Lop. to take present
and effectuall order, that the Streetes, through w'^''. they are to
pass especially Aldersgate Streete, be very well cleansed, against
Munday night next, at the farthest, and a very good and carefull
watch, kept by the Constable, and better sort of Cittizens them-
3E
390 DRAMATIC RECORDS
selues, as well with in the Cittie itselfe, as with in that part of
the liberties, that lyeth that way, And so &c^''. signed
Lo: ArchbP. of Cant' Ea: of Bridgewater
Lo: Keeper Lo: Cotington
Lo: ArchbP. of York M^ Trear
Lo: Privie Seale M"". Comptroll'".
Ea: Marshall M'". Seer Coke
M*". Seer: windebank
Two other Lfes of the like tenor directed to the Justices of
the Peace of the Countie of Midd", and Cittie of Westminster
dated and signed vt ante : —
XVIII
[1636, March 29. From P. C. Register, Charles I, xii. 59. Printed by
Collier, ii. 10.]
[Letter dated 28 March 1636.]
A Letter to the Mayor of Canterburie
By yo*" Letter of the 25* of this Moneth sent vnto o"" verie good
Lord the Lo Arch Bishop of Canterbury his Grace, Wee vnder-
stand w'** what respect yo" proceeded w"" the Players that lately
came to that Citty, in regard of his Ma*^: Commission w'^'' they
carried, and wee likewise take notice not onely of the disorders
occasioned by their playinge at so vnseasonable a time in the
night, but also of their insolent behavio"" to yo"^ selfe, for w'''' they
deserue punishment, and shall smart when they shalbee met
w^'all, to w'^'' purpose wee pray yo'' to advertize the names of
some of the Chiefest of their Company that further inquiry may
bee here made after them ; And as wee cannot but commend the
great Care yo"* haue expressed in the good & orderly govern-
ment of that Citty, so wee must let yo" knowe to yo"" encourage-
ment, that his Ma''^: beinge by his Grace made acquainted w**"
yo*" Carriage in this particular hath Comanded vs to giue yo"
notice of his gracous acceptance thereof ; And for the future if
PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER
391
any Stageplayers shall come to play in yo*" Citty in the time of
Lent yo" are not to glue way vnto it, w^^'out the speciall privity
of his Grace of Canterbury. And so &c. dated the 29''': of March
Signed
Lo Keeper Lo Newburgh
Lo Arch B?P of Yorke M"" Comptroller
Lo Treasurer M"^ Sec: Coke
Lo Privie Seale M'' Sec Windebanke.
XIX
[1636, May 10. From P. C. Register, Charles I, xii. 144. No. (i) is
described, but not printed, by Collier, ii. 9. Sir Henry Herbert notes in his
office book the receipt of a warrant from the Lord Chamberlain, and his trans-
mission of it to ' the four companys of players' on May 12 {Variorum, iii. 239).]
(•)
[Sitting of 10 May 1636.]
To suppress His ma^"": being this day p''sent in Councell, &
Playes. takeing into consideracon how dangerous it
mought be in theise tymes of Infeccon to suffer
the vsuall Assemblies and confluence of people at Play houses ;
Hath thought fitt and ordered that the Lo: Chamblaine of the
Queens ma'^: Household, should be hereby prayed & required
to cause the Players, that are her ma*^: Servants to forbeare
all Stage Playes & other Enterludes whatsoeuer vntill further
order. /
[Same sitting.]
To suppress His ma*'^: being this day p^^sent in Councell, & take-
Playes. / Ing into Consideracon how dangerous it mought
be in theise tymes of Infeccon to suffer the vsuall
Assemblies and Confluence of people at Play houses Showes
& other Spectacles Haue thought fitt and ordered, that the Lo
3 E 2
392 DRAMATIC RECORDS
Chamt)laine of his ma*^: Househould should be hereby prayed
& required to cause all Stage Playes, Enterludes, Showes &
Spectacles whatsoever, to be forthw*** suppressed vntill further
order. /
XX
[1637, March i. From P. C. Register, Charles /, xii. 211. Described by
Collier, ii. 1 5. Sir Henry Herbert noted in his office book, ' On thursday
morning the 23 of February the bill of the plague made the number at forty foure,
upon which decrease the king gave the players their Uberty, and they began the
24 February 1636 , . . The plague encreasinge, the players laye still untill the
2 of October, when they had leave to play. Mr. Beeston was commanded to make
a company of boyes, and began to play at the Cockpitt with them the same day '
{Variorum, iii. 239). Cf. No. XXII.]
[Sitting of I March 1636/7.]
Playes &C5;. An order to suppresse Playes, danceing on the
suppressed Ropes &c: of the tenor of that entered the 10*'' of
May last. /
XXI
[1637, May 12. From P. C. Register, Charles I, xiii, 403. Described by
Collier, ii. 15. The offending players were probably ' Beeston's boys'; cf. note
on No. XX, and p. 346 of these Collections. J. T. Murray, English Dramatic
Companies, i. 367, quotes an undated petition by Christopher Beeston from -S". P.
Dom. Charles I, cccxxxix. 7, probably intended as an apology for this offence.]
[Sitting of 12 May 1637.]
A warrant to laspar Heyley Messenger to fetch before the
Lords Christopher and W™. Biston Theophif Bird Ezech: Fenn
& Michaell Moone w*** a Clause to Command the Keepers of
the Playhouse called the Cockpit in Drury Lane who either live
in it or have relacon to it not to permit Playes to bee Acted
there till further Order. Dated y^ 12''' Signed Lo A Bp of
Cant Lo Keeper Lo: Trearer, Lo P: Seale M"^ Sec Coke. /
PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER 393
XXII
[1637, September 17, 24, From P. C. Register, Charles 7, xiv. 215, 222, 227.
Not previously printed ; but cf. the extract from Sir Henry Herbert's office book
in the note to No. XX.]
(■)
[Sitting of 17 September 1637.]
Whereas Christopher Beeston their Ma^'^^ Servaunt did by his
humble Peticon presented to the Boord shewe that having many
young Actors lying at his Charge a long time vnpractised by
reason of y^ restraint occasioned by y^ Infeccon of y^ plague in
and neare London, whereby they are much disabled to performe
their desired Service, And therefore humbly besought that they
might have leave to practise for y^ better performance of their
duties, when they shalbee commanded. It was therevpon
Ordered his Ma''^: present in Councell that the said Beeston
should bee at libertie to practise his said Actors, at Michaelmas
next, if by that time there bee noe considerable encrease of the
Sicknesse, or that there dye not of y*" Infeccon in and about
London more then there died this last weeke./
[Sitting of 24 September 1637.]
Whereas her Ma'^ Players did by their humble Peticon shew,
that by reason of the Infeccon of the Plague in and neare about
London they have for a long time, almost to their vtter vndoing
(having noe other Imployment nor meanes to maintaine them-
selves and their families) been restrayned from vsing their
quallity, And therefore humbly besought their Lopp^ to bee
restored to their former Liberty. It was therevpon Ordered
(his Ma''^: present in Councell) that her Ma*^: said Players
should bee at liberty to play at Michaelmas next, if by that
time there bee noe considerable encrease nor that there dye not
394 DRAMATIC RECORDS
of the Infeccon in and about London, more then there died this
last weeke. /
(3)
[Same sitting of 24 September 1637.]
Ordered y*" 17*'' of September 1637./
His Ma*® Servants y* Players having, by reason of the Infeccon
of the Plague in and neare London, been for a long time re-
strained and having now spent what they got in many yeares
before and soe not able any longer to subsist & mainteine
their families did by their Peticon to his Ma*'^: most humbly
desire leave to bee now at libertie to vse their quallity. It was
therevpon this day Ordered (his Ma*'^: present in Councell) that
y^ said Players should bee at liberty to play at Michmas next,
if, by that time there bee noe considerable encrease of the Sick-
nesse nor that there dye not of y^ infeccon in and about London
more then there died this last weeke. /
XXIII
[1639, September 29. From P. C. Register, Charles I, xvi. 653. Printed
by Chalmers, Apology, 504, from a copy in S. P. Dom. Charles I, ccccxxix. 51,
52. This has a slightly different text, which includes a reference to ' Some of the
aldermen ' of the City of London as having been libelled as well as the proctors,
and is accompanied by a note of ' Exceptions ' taken against the play, from which
it appears that it was called The Whore New Vamped, and that ' Cain ', i. e. Andrew
Cane, of Prince Charles's men, was a performer in it.]
[Sitting of 29 September 1639.]
Whereas complaint was this day made to his Ma*'^ sitting in
Councell, that the Stage Players of the Red Bull haue lately for
many dayes to gether acted a scandalous and Libellous play
wherein they haue audaciously reproached, and in a Libellous
manner traduced and personated some persons of quality, and
scandalized, and defamed the whole profession of Proctors
PRIVY COUNCIL REGISTER 395
belonging to the Courte of the CiuIU Lawe, and reflected vpon
the present Governm^ It was Ordered, that M"". Atturny
Generall should bee hereby prayed, and required forthw*"". to call
before him not onely the Poet that made the said Play, and the
Actors that played the same, but also the person who licensed it,
and haueing diligently examined the trueth of the said complaint
to proceed roundly against such of them as hee shall find to
haue bin faulty, and to vse such effectuall expedicon to bring
them to Sentence, as that their exemplary punishm*. may preuent
such insolences betymes,/
XXIV
[1640, September 11. From P. C. Register, Charles I, xvii, 725. Printed
by Collier, ii. 34, but apparently from a copy other than that in the Register.]
[Sitting of II September 1640.]
Whereas the Infeccon of the Plague doeth much increase in and
about London and it is very dangerous to permit any Company
or concourse of people to meete and assemble together at Play-
houses. It was therefore this day Ordered at y^ Boord that all
Players, both their Ma'^ Servants and others as also the Keepers
of Paris Garden bee hereby commanded and required forthw'^ to
shut vp their Play houses, and not to exercise or play in any of
them or in any other place w'^'in y^ Citty or Suburbs of London
till it shall please God to cease the Infeccon and that further
Order shalbee given by the Boord. Hereof all the Masters and
Actors of the said Playhouses are to take notice and to conforme
themselves as they will answere it at their perills. /
INDEX
Account of the English Dramatic Poets,
by G. Langbaine, 333.
Adams, J., 355.
Admiral's Players, to be allowed at
the Fortune, 82 ; submit to restraint,
181.
Alba, properties for, 249.
Albion Knight, a fragment of a morality
printed c. 1566, 229.
Alleyn, E., builds the Fortune as leader
of the Lord Admiral's Players, 8r.
Anne, Queen, her Players, &c., see
Queen Anne's Plaj'ers, &c.
Apius and Virginia, 287.
Archer, E., his List of Plays, 329.
Armyn, R., 264.
Arraignment of Paris, 286,
AsTMORE (Ottwell?), maimed at the
triumphs on the Thames, 89.
Aubrey, John, A Jotting by, 341,
B., R., his Apius and Virginia, 287.
Bacon, F., letter regarding a masque at
Gray's Inn, 214.
Baker, D. E., his Companion to the
Playhouse, 338.
Banbury, Mayor of. Letter from the
Privy Council, 384.
Bang, W., on Dutch passages in Wealth
and Health, 7.
Bankside, Langley's new playhouse on,
74; complaints of plays on, 76;
petition to suppress plays on, 78.
Barker, J., his Drama Recorded, 331.
Barker and Son, their Continuation of
Egerton's Theatrical Remembrancer,
331-
Barker s Complete List of Plays, 331.
Battle of Alcazar, authorship, loi.
Beeston, C, 266, 270, 372, 392.
Beeston, R,, 266, 270.
Beeston, W., 392.
Beeston's Boys, company formed, 392 ;
warrant for their apprehension, 392 ;
restrained during infection, 393.
Belvedere, quotations in, 296.
Benfield, R., 281, 282.
Biographia Dramatica, 1 7 8 2 , by L Reed,
and 1812, by S. Jones, 338.
Birch, G., 283.
Bird, T., 392.
Bird, W., 276.
Blackfriars, petition of the inhabitants
of, regarding the playhouse, 91, 93;
order of the Privy Council regarding
the same, 98 (duplicate, 387); Por-
ter's Hall playhouse in, 277 ; Ros-
seter's new house in, 373, 374)"
orders of the Privy Council regarding
the approach, 386, 387, 388.
Boar's Head, to be allowed for the
Earl of Oxford's players, 86.
Boas, F. ^., fames I at Oxford in 1605,
246.
Bodenham's Belvedere, Quotations from
The Virtuous Octavia and A Knack
to Know an Honest Man, by Charles
Crawford, 296.
Bowes, Sir J., his suit touching plays,
151.
Brandin, L., on Spanish passages in
Wealth and Health, 15.
British Theatre, by W. R. Chetwood,
336.
F
398
INDEX
Browne, R., 272.
Buck, Sir G., Letter from the Privy
Council, 376.
Bull, in Bishopsgate Street, fencing at,
55-
burbage, j., 263, 349.
burbage, r., 264, 281, 372,
Byrde (Bird), W., 268, 276.
Caesar's Revenge, 290.
Calisto and Melebea, 107.
Cambridge, Vice - Chancellor of, his
authority from the Privy Council
for suppressing unlawful games and
shows within five miles of the Uni-
versity, 195 ; his warrant to the
constables of Chesterton for the sup-
pressing of plays, 197.
Cambridge, Vice-Chancellor and Heads
of Houses, letter to Lord Burghley,
complaining of plays at Chesterton,
1 90 ; petition to the Privy Council
regarding the same, 192; letter to
Lord Burghley regarding a comedy
in English to be performed before
the Queen, 199; letter to the same
regarding restraint of plays, 201.
Cane, A., 394.
Canterbury, Mayor of. Letter from the
Privy Council, 390.
Capell, E., his Notitia Dramaiica, 337.
Cartwright, W., 276,
Challenges to a tourney, 181.
Chamberlain's Players, to be allowed
at the Globe, 82.
Chambers, E. K., The Elizabethan Lords
Chamberlain, 3 1 ; -<4 Jotting by John
Aubj-ey, 341; Two Early Player
Lists, 348 ; Commissio?ts Jor the
Chapel, 357 ; Plays of the King's
Men in 1641, 364.
Chapel, Commissions for the, 357.
Chapman, G., his claim to the Two
Italian Gentlemen, 222,
Charles I, coronation of, pageants
erected in the City to be removed,
95 ; his Players, see King Charles'
Players.
Charles, Prince of Wales, his Players,
see Prince Charles' Players.
Chesterton, plays at, 191, 193; Vice-
Chancellor's warrant to suppress
plays at, 197.
Chetwood, W. R., his British Theatre,
336 ; Theatrical Records and Play-
house Pocket Companion, based on
his work, 337.
Cibber, C, Apology Jor his Lije, con-
tains List of Dramatic Authors based
on Chetwood, 337.
Clarke, T,, 349.
CoBHAM, William Brooke, Lord, Lord
Chamberlain, 39.
Cockpit, attempt to pull down, 377 ;
road leading along the back of
it to be mended, 383; restraint at,
392.
Colbrand, E., 276.
COLWELL, R., 385.
CoLWELL, T., printer oi Albion Knight,
229; of the Cruel Debtor, 315.
Commissions Jor the Chapel, by E. K.
Chambers, 357.
Common Council, act touching plays,
175-
Companies, Dramatic, see Admiral's,
Beeston's Boys, Chamberlain's, Duke
of York's, Hunsdon's, King Charles',
King James', Lady Elizabeth's, Lei-
cester's, Oxford's, Prince Charles',
Prince Henry's, Prince Palatine's,
Queen Anne's, Queen Anne's Cham-
ber of Bristol, Queen Anne's Revels,
Queen Henrietta Maria's, Queen
Elizabeth's, Revels, Strange's, Wor-
cester's Players.
Companion to the Playhouse, by D. E.
Baker, 338.
INDEX
399
Complete List of all the English Dra-
matic Poets, appended to T. Whincop's
Scanderbeg, 335.
condell, h., 264, 281, 282.
Cooke, L., 355.
Copland, W., printer of A Play of
Robin Hood, c. 1560, 125.
CowLY, R., 264.
CoxETER, T., bis notes on Jacob, 334.
Crawford, C, on Peele, 102 ; on the
Two Italian Gentlemen, 222 ; on
Caesar's Revenge, 290 ; on Boden-
ham's Belvedere, 296.
Cross Keys, Hunsdon's men to play
at, 74.
Cruel Debtor, 315.
Curtain, to be closed during infection,
63 ; petition to suppress, 78 ; to be
pulled down, 82, 165.
D'Ancre, Marquess, play concerning,
376.
Daborne, R., 272.
Daniel, J., 279.
Daniel, S., his Queens Arcadia, ^^loi^ti-
ties for, 249.
Da\t;nport (Damport), E., 385,
Dawes, R., 273.
Devices to be showed at Nottingham
castle at the meeting of Elizabeth
and Mary Stuart, 144.
DowNTON, T., 268, 276, 372.
Dramatic Bibliographers, Notes on, 324.
Dramatic Records from the Lansdowne
Manuscripts, 143,
Dramatic Records from the Patent Rolls.
Company Licences, 260.
Dramatic Recordsfrom the Privy Council
Register, 1603-164 2, 370.
Dramatic Records from the University
Archives, fames I at Oxford in
1605, 246.
Dramatic Records of the City of London.
The Remembrancia, 43.
Drummond, William, his quotations
from the Hunting of Cupid, 307.
Duke, J., 266, 270,
Duke of York's Players, Licence from
tho Patent Rolls, 272.
Dutton, J., 355.
ECCLESTONE, W., 28 1.
Egerton, T. and J., their Theatrical
Dictionary, 331.
Egerton s Theatrical Remembrancer, 331.
Elizabeth, Queen, Proclamation against
unlawful Retainers, 350 ; her Players,
see Queen Elizabeth's Players.
Elizabeth, Princess, triumphs at her
marriage, 89 ; her Players, see Lady
Elizabeth's Players.
Elizabethan Lords Chamberlain, by E.
K. Chambers, 31.
England! s Helicon, quotation from the
Two Italian Gentlemen, 222 ; from
the Hunting of Cupid, 308.
England! s Parnassus, extracts attributed
to G. Peele, 102; quotation from
the Two Italian Gentlemen, 222; from
the Hunting of Cupid, 308.
Esdaile, a., ed. of Love Feigned and
Unfeigtud, 17.
Essex, Earl of, letter to the Stationers'
Company forbidding the printing of
certain plays, 367.
Exchequer Warrant for money due
for the Revels, 150.
Feales, W., his Catalogue of Plays, 331.
Fencing, licence for John David, 55;
licence withdrawn, 56 ; explanation
thereof, 57 ; to be forbidden at the
Theatre, 62.
Fenn, E., 392.
Fidele and Fortunio, 218, 294.
Field, N., 281.
Fleetwood, W., Recorder of London,
to Lord Burghley, 152, 155, 160, 163.
F 2
400
INDEX
Fletcher, L., 264.
Fortune, to be built by Edward Alleyn
in Golding Lane, 8 1 ; apprentices
meet at, 377.
Fulgens, Senator of Rome, Goodly inter-
lude of, probably the Plav of Lucrece,
138.
Game of Chess, a seditious play by T.
Middleton, 379.
Garland, J., 273, 355.
George a Green, 288.
GiLDON, C., his revision of Langbaine,
335.
Giles, N., Master of the Children of the
Chapel, 359, 362.
Globe, to be allowed to the Lord
Chamberlain's players, 8 2 ; concourse
at, 382. ,
GouGH, R., 281.
Grace, F., 276.
Gray's Inn, cast of a comedy at, 179.
Greene, R., reputed author of Selimtis,
108; his connexion with George a
Green, 289.
Greene, T., 266, 270.
Greg, W. W., Notes on Dramatic Biblio-
graphers, 324.
Grindal, E., Bishop of London, to Sir
W. Cecil, regarding the danger of in-
fection at plays, 148.
Gunell, R., 276.
Haughton, R., 385.
Haulte, J., 270.
Hawkyns, a., 267.
Hawood (Haywood), T., 266, 270.
Heminges(Heninges), J., 264, 281,282,
372.
Henrietta Maria, Queen, her Players,
see Queen Henrietta Maria's Players.
Henry, Prince of Wales, his Players,
see Prince Henry's Players.
Herbert, Sir H., licenses a scandalous
comedy, 380.
Heywood, T., 266, 270.
Hobbes, T., 273.
Holt (Haulte), J., 266, 270.
Howard of Effingham, Charles
Howard, Lord, Lord Chamberlain,
37-
Howard of Effingham, William
Howard, Lord, Lord Chamberlain,
31.
Howard of Walden, Thomas Howard,
Lord, Lord Chamberlain, 41.
HuNSDON, George Carey, Lord, Lord
Chamberlain, 39.
HuNSDON, Henry Carey, Lord, Lord
Chamberlain, 35, 39.
Hunsdon's Players, to play at the
Cross Keys, 74.
Hunting of Cupid, 307.
Ill May Day, 62.
Iphigenia at Aulis, 226.
Jacob, G., his Poetical Register, 335.
fames I at Oxford in 1605, 246 ; his
Players, see King James' Players.
Jeffes, a., 268.
Jeffes, H., 268, 276, 372.
Jexkinson, F., his fragment of the Pro-
digal Son, 27.
fohan the Evangelist, Wise copy, 3 ; H.
Bradley on, 16; W. H. Williams on,
16.
Johnson (Whiting ?), R., 385.
Johnson, W., 263, 349, 355.
Jones, B., 385.
Jones, R., 272.
Jones, S., his Biographia Dramatica,
revised from Baker and Reed, 338.
foiling by fohn Aubrey, by E. K. Cham-
bers, 341.
JuBY, E., 268, 276.
INDEX
401
Kendall, T., 267.
King Charles' Players, Licence from
the Patent Rolls, 282 ; petition against
restraint, 394 ; List of their plays in
1641, 364.
King James' Players, Licence from the
Patent Rolls, 264 ; from the Privy
Seal warrant, 280; to be suffered to
play, 372 ; act a scandalous comedy,
380.
KiRKHAM, E., 267.
Kirkman, F., his Lists of Plays, 329.
Knack to Know an Honest Man, 287.
Knight's Marshal, misbehaviour of his
men in execution of a warrant, 70
(duplicate, 187).
Lady Elizabeth's Players, Licence
from the Patent Rolls, 274.
Laneham, J., 263, 349, 355.
Langbaine, G., his Momus Triumphans ,
332; his Account of the English
Dramatic Poets, 333.
Langley, F., proposes to build a play-
house on the Bankside, 74.
Lansdowne Manuscripts, dramatic re-
cords from, 143.
Lee, R., 266, 270, 284, 372.
Leicester, R. Dudley, Earl of, to Lord
Burghley, regarding Sir Jerome
Bowes' suit touching plays, 151.
Leicester's Players, Licence from the
Patent Rolls, 262 ; list of, 348.
Lives and Characters of the English
Dramatic Poets, by Langbaine and
Gildon, 334.
Lives of the English Poets, by W. Win-
stanley, 332.
Locrine, Lamentable Tragedy of, 108;
parallels with Selinius, 109.
Lodge, T., his Wounds of Civil War,
287.
Longe, N., 284.
Love Feigned and Unfeigned, a fragmen-
tary morality, 17.
LowEN, J., 281, 282.
Lucrece, Play of, a fragment of an inter-
lude printed c. 1530, 137, 294.
McKerrow, R. B., on R. Greene and
George a Green, 289.
Mary, Queen of Scots, Devices at her
proposed meeting with Elizabeth, 1 44.
Masque, of the Inns of Court, streets to
be cleaned for the occasion, 99
(duplicate, 389) ; at Gray's Inn, letter
from Bacon regarding, 214.
Massey, C, 268, 276.
Mayor of London, to the Earl of
Warwick, respecting alleged with-
drawal of fencing licence, 57 ; to
Lord Burghley, regarding the infec-
tion, 59 (duplicate, 158); to Lord
Burghley, regarding a tumult in South-
wark, 70 (duplicate, 187); to Lord
Burghley, regarding the restraint of
the Lord Admiral's and Lord Strange's
players, 180.
Mayors of London, i 580-1 640, 44.
Mears, W., his Catalogue of Plays, 330.
Medwall, H., reputed author of the
Play of Lucrece, 138.
Middleton, E., Warrant for his appre-
hension, 381 ; tenders his appearance,
381.
Middleton, T., Warrant for his appre-
hension, 380 ; author of a scandalous
comedy, 380.
Momus Triumphans, 332.
Moone, M., 392.
MooRE, J., 274.
More, Sir Thomas, 294.
MoTTLEY, J., editor of a List of English
Dramatic Poets, appended to T.
Whincop's Scanderbeg, 335.
MuNDAY, A., reputed author of the Two
Italian Gentlemen, 219, 224.
402
INDEX
Newton, J., 273, 372.
Norwich, Mayor of, Letter from the
Privy Council, 378.
Notes on Dramatic Bibliographers, by
W. W. Greg, 324.
Nottingham, Devices at, 144.
Nottingham, Earl of, request for pension
for Astmore, 89.
Oldcastle, Sir John, no.
Oldys, W., his notes on Langbaine, 334.
Ottwell (Astmore ?), maimed at the
triumphs on the Thames, 89.
OuLTON, W. C, editor of Barker's Con-
tinuation of EgertorHs Theatrical Re-
membrancer, 331.
Oxford's Players, to be allowed at the
Boar's Head, 85.
Pageants, to be removed from the city,
95-
Pallant, R., 266, 270.
Paris Garden, accident at, 59 (duplicate,
15S), 61, 65, 161, 171.
Parr, W., 276.
Patient Grissell, by John Phillip, 217.
Payne, R., 267,
Peele, G., extracts attributed to him in
England s Parnassus, 102 ; reputed
author oi Locrine, 108 ; his Hunting
of Cupid, 307.
Perkinne (Perkyn), J., 263, 349.
Perkins (Pyrkins), R., 266, 270, 284.
Phillip, J., his Patient Grissell, 217.
Phillippes, a., 264.
Phillips, E., his Theatrum Poetarum, 331.
Plague, suggestions to the Privy Coun-
cil against it, 202 ; Orders in time of,
206 ; complaint of the Privy Council
regarding, 211.
Player Lists, Two Early, 248.
Players, Warrant for the apprehension
of certain players for playing during
Lent, 372 ; at Norwich, 379 ; arrested
at Banbury, 384 ; to be brought to
London, 385 ; tender their appear-
ance and are discharged, 385; in-
solent behaviour at Canterbury, 390.
Playhouse Pocket Compaction, based on
Chetwood, 337.
Playhouses, complaints of the Mayor to
the Archbishop regarding, 68, 70 ;
to be reduced to two, 8 1 ; complaints
of the Privy Council regarding the
multitude of, 84 ; a third house to be
allowed for Oxford's men, 85 ; sedi-
tious libels in, 377. See also Bank-
side, Blackfriars, Boar's Head, Bull,
Cockpit, Cross Keys, Curtain, For-
tune, Globe, Paris Garden, Red Bull,
Swan, Theatre.
Plays, in time of infection, 47 ; restraint
during infection, 50 ; removal of re-
straint, 51; on Sunday, players
committed, 51 ; to be allowed on
holidays, 52, 54 ; restraint during
infection, 63 ; hinder archery and
spread infection, 65 ; complaints re-
garding, 68, 70, 75, 78, 79 ; pretence
of meeting at, 71 ; restraint during
infection, 73; complaints regarding
plays at the Theatre and Bankside,
76 ; to be allowed at two houses twice
a week, 83 ; restraint during infection,
87 ; restraint owing to the death of
Prince Henry, 88 ; restraint during
infection, 96, 97 ; danger of infection
at, 148; suppression of, 157; act of
the Common Council regarding, 175;
at Chesterton, complained of, 1 9 1 , 1 9 3 ;
at Chesterton, warrant for suppression,
197; restraint at Cambridge, 201;
suppression during infection, 204,
210; to be performed at Trinity
College, Cambridge, 213; removal
of restraint after Lent, 371 ; restraint
during infection, 371; to be suffered
at accustomed places, 372 ; payment
for three plays, 376 ; pretence of
INDEX
40:
meeting at a play, 382 ; restraint
during sickness, 382; not to be
allowed at Canterbury during Lent
except by permission of the Arch-
bishop, 391; restraint during sick-
ness, 391, 392 ; restraint during in-
fection, 395.
Plays of the King's Men in 1641, byE.
K. Chambers, 364.
Poetical Register, by G. Jacob, 335.
Pollard, T., 283.
Porter's Hall, playhouse in Black-
friars, licence for the erection of, from
the Patent Rolls, 277.
Price, R., 276.
Prince Charles' Players, perform a
scandalous play at the Red Bull, 394.
Prince Henry's Players, Licence from
the Patent Rolls, 268 ; to be suffered
to play, 372.
Prince Palatine's Players, Licence
from the Patent Rolls, 275.
Prodigal Son, a fragment of an interlude
printed c. 1530, 27, 106.
Queen Anne's Chamber of Bristol,
Children of. Licence from the Patent
Rolls, 279.
Queen Anne's Pla\'Ers, Licence from
the Patent Rolls, 265, 270; Entry of
Licence from the Signet Office
Docquet Book, 283 ; to be suffered
to play, 372; an attempt to pull down
their playhouse, 375.
Queen Anne's Revels, Children of. Li-
cence from the Patent Rolls, 267, 271.
Queen Elizabeth's Players, to play
within the City, 66, 67 ; Petition to
the Privy Council, 169 ; Lord INIayor's
reply to their petition, 170; List of,
354.
Queen Henrietta Maria's Players,
to be restrained during infection, 391 ;
petition against restraint, 393.
Queen's Arcadia, by S. Daniel, proper-
ties for, 249.
Rastell, J., reputed printer of the
P'ay o/Lucrece, 137.
Rastell, John or William, printer of
the Prodigal Son, 27.
Rawlinson MS. Poet. 85, quotation
from the Hunting of Cupid, 309.
Reason, G., 273.
Red Bull, attempt to pull down, 377 ;
scandalous play at, 394.
Reed, L, his Biographia Dramatica,
revised from D. E. Baker, 338.
Remembrancia (City of London), dra-
matic records from, 43.
Revels, Exchequer warrant for money
due for, 150.
Revels, Children of, Entry of Licence
from Signet Office Docquet Book, 283.
Rice, J., 282.
Robin Hood, a play for May Games,
c. 1560, 125.
Robin Hood and Little fohn, 124.
Robin Hood and the Friar, part of A
Play of Robin Hood, 127.
Robin Hood and the Potter, part of A
Play of Robin Hood, 132.
Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Notting-
ham, a dramatic fragment, c. 1475,
117.
Robinson, R., 281, 282.
Rogers, R., and Ley, W., their List of
Plays, 328.
Rosseter, p., 272, 277 ; his new house
in Blackfriars, 273.
RowLE, S., 268, 276.
Rowley, W., 273, 282, 372.
Royal Patents for Players, 260.
Rules for the Guidance of Editors of the
Society s Reprints, 112.
Second Maiden's Tragedy, 227.
Selimus, Tragical Reign of 108 ;
parallels with Locrine, 109.
404
INDEX
Shakespeare, W., 264 ; Aubrey's notes
on, 341.
Shancke (Shankes), J., 276, 281, 282.
Sharpe, R., 283.
Singer, J., 355.
Sly, W., 264.
SouTHWARK, disorders under pretence
of meeting at a play in, 70 (duplicate,
187).
Strange's Players, act in defiance of
restraint, i8i.
Stratford, W., 276.
Sussex, Thomas Ratcliffe, Earl of. Lord
Chamberlain, 33.
Swan, Langley's new house on the
Bankside, 74.
Swanston, E., 282.
Swinerton, T., 266, 270.
Tarbock, J,, 272.
Tarleton, R., 355.
Taylor, J., 273, 282.
Temperance and Humility, a fragment
of a morality printed c. 1530, 243.
Theatre, disorder at, on Sunday, 46 ;
fencing at, 57 ; fencing to be for-
bidden at, 62 ; to be closed during
infection, 63 ; complaints regarding,
76 ; petition to suppress, 78 ; dis-
turbance at, 153, 164; suppression
of, 165.
Theatrical Records, based on Chetwood,
337-
Theatrum Poetarum, 331.
TiLNEY, Charles, alleged author of
Locrine, 108.
Tilney, E., to censor plays, 69.
Tom Tyler and his Wi/e, 285.
TooLEY, N., 281.
TowNE, J., 355.
TOWNE, T., 268.
ToWNSEND, J., 274.
Trinity College, Cambridge, Master
and Fellows of, to Lord Burghley,
asking for the loan of robes from the
Tower for their plays, 213.
TuRNOR, D. (T.), 385.
Two Early Player Lists, by E. K.
Chambers, 348.
Two Italian Gentlemen, 218.
Underwood, J., 281.
Unlawful Retainers, Proclamation
against, 350.
Victuallers, catalogue of infected
houses of, 59 (duplicate, 158), 60.
Wager, his Cruel Debtor, 315.
Warwick, Earl of, to the Lord Mayor,
respecting a licence for a fencer, 55 ;
respecting withdrawal of licence, 56.
Wealth and Health, Wise copy, 3 ;
Dutch passages, 7 ; Spanish passages,
1 5 ; M. Hunter on, 1 6 ; ed. F.
Holthausen, 16.
Whincop, T., List of Dramatic Poets
appended to his Scanderheg, 335.
White, E., publisher of a reprint of
A Play of Robin Hood, 125.
Whiting (Johnson?), R., 385.
Whore New Vamped, a scandalous play
at the Red Bull, 394.
Wilson, R., 263, 349.
WiNSTANLEY, W., his Lives of the English
Poets, 332.
Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll, quotation
from the Hunting of Cupid, 309,
Worcester's Players, join with Ox-
ford's, 86.
Wounds of Civil War, 287.
Wright, W. A., 119.
York, Duke of, his Players, see Duke
of York's Players,
PRINTED FOR THE MALONE SOCIETY BY
HORACE HART M.A., AT THE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY
PRESS
COLLECTIONS
VOLUME I
THE MALONE SOCIETY
191 1
CONTENTS
PAGE
Notes on the Society's Publications . . .3, 101, 217, 285
Rules for Editors of the Society's Reprints . . -113
Articles and Notes
The Elizabethan Lords Chamberlain, by E. K. Chambers . 31
James I at Oxford in 1605. Property lists from the University
Archives. Edited by F. S. Boas and W. W. Greg . . 247
Bodenham's Belvedere, Quotations from The Virtuous Octavia
and A Knack to Know an Honest Man, by C. Crawford 296
Notes on Dramatic Bibliographers, by W. W. Greg . . 324
A Jotting by John Aubrey, by E. K. Chambers . . . 341
Two Early Player-Lists, by E. K. Chambers .... 348
Commissions for the Chapel, by E. K. Chambers . . . 357
Plays of the King's Men in 1641, by E. K. Chambers . . 364
Texts
Love Feigned and Unfeigned, a fragmentary morality, edited
by A. Esdaile 17
The Prodigal Son, a fragment of an interlude printed c. 1530 27
Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham, a dramatic
fragment, c. 1475 117
A Play of Robin Hood for May-Games, printed by Copland,
c. 1560 125
The Play of Lucrece,a fragment of an interlude printed c. 1530 137
CONTENTS
Albion Knight, an imperfect morality, printed by Colwell,
c. i^66 229
Temperance and Humility, a fragment of a morality printed
c- 153° 343
The Hunting of Cupid, a lost play by George Peele . . 307
The Cruel Debtor, a fragment of a morality printed by
Colwell, c. 1566 ' S'^S
Dramatic Records edited by E. K. Chambers and W. W. Greg
The City of London. The Remembrancia .... 43
The Lansdowne Manuscripts . . . . . . -143
The Patent Rolls ......... 360
The Privy Council Register, 1603-1642 370
Index 397
*^^ Except where otherwise stated the responsibility for
contributions rests with the General Editor.
VI
LIST OF PLATES
TO
Wealth and Health, sig. D i verso, Wise copy
Love Feigned and Unfeigned, beginning of fragment
The Prodigal Son, fragment
Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham, fragment
MS. Lansdowne 99, art. 96, end ....
Albion Knight, sig. C 1 recto ....
Temperance and Humility, sig. a 3
The Hunting of Cupid, last page of Drummond MS.
The Cruel Debtor, sig. D i recto ....
Aubrey MS. 8, fol. 45 recto
Aubrey MS. 8, fol. 45 verso
FACE PAGE
3
17
37
117
182
^35
244
312
319
34a
346
Vll
PR Malone Society, London
621 Collections
v.l
pt.V5
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
Live Music
Archive
Librivox
Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Internet
Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American
Libraries
TV News
Understanding
9/11